Ah! Urd's Lost Angel
by ironrod
Summary: Ambushed from behind, World of Elegance falls to Earth with Urd's soul trapped inside her own.
1. Chapter 1

_**This story started as an original work posted over at fiction press under the manga section (Google search term 'Tien Snow Angel' BTW for those of you who are interested.) But the stats were so abysmal that I decided to re-edit it and post it here in the hopes I might drum up some interest in the original story. **_

**Ah! Lost Angel**

_And lo born unto both the rulers of Heaven and Hell was the goddess Urd destined to forever live in the shadows that exist between the light and the darkness._

Lost Angel chapter 1.

Kendal

Ever been skiing? If not it's something I recommend you try at least once. Do it while you're still young before life has a chance to jade you. For me skiing is the perfect encapsulation of life, of mankind and his impact on the world around him.

Let me explain in parable; Wake ye stout hearted gentlemen and behold the mountain covered with fresh fallen snow, white and pristine. If you are one of the fortunate few who can afford the cost of a full day ticket and possessed of the wherewithal to get to the resort before they open you can be one of the first to ride the lift to the summit. (Placed there for your convenience by minimum wage workers toiling under a hot, merciless sun who in their wildest dreams could never afford the cost of your room at the inn.) Once at the top gaze upon the virginal beauty of the untouched snow at your feet, then push off for your first run of the day. When you reach the bottom pause a moment to admire the indelible marks you left in nature's alabaster perfection. Repeat the process until the pristine view that greeted your gaze this morning is but a fading memory. After that then you can retire to the balcony of the high class restaurant on the summit and sip on your favorite umbrella shrouded drink watching as the great unwashed masses with their half day tickets try to eke out a few good runs somewhere in the devastation you left before the sun sets.

I wasn't always this cynical; there was a time when I could just wallow in the joy of a good day on the slopes. But that was in the past, before Murphy decided to take a personal interest in ruining my life. The reason I was up so early this morning wasn't because I wanted to be the first to fuck up the ski runs today. It was because today was my last day in my former Timeshare and I wanted to remember everything about what it was like the day when I fell from on high. You see, today was the day that I was to lose my place as one of the privilege few and join the ranks of the unwashed.

Although I was one of the first to the summit I wasn't in a hurry to get to the bottom. I was waiting, waiting for the fast moving storm with whiteout conditions that I knew was going to hit sometime in the next few hours. You see I didn't come up here to be the first; instead I wanted to be the last. It was my intention to be the last man off the mountain that day, arriving just seconds ahead of the storm front. To the enthrallment of all the beautiful people who held on to what I had lost.

I had it perfectly visualized in my mine. Me braving the elements hurtling down the slope, in white relief, just seconds ahead of the storm nipping at my heels. That was why I sat patiently under the balcony of the restaurant I could no longer afford and studied the sky as the front continued to build up on the backside of the mountain.

Ah yes, what is it that they say? The best laid plans of mice and men… It was the sound of the Ski lift grinding to a halt that drew my attention back down slope. It seems that I had forgotten about the inconvenient fact that the mountains affect the air flow around them. While I was staring behind me, waiting for the storm to arrive the leading edge of the storm had already hit the back side of the mountain and had wrapped around it shrouding the base in an impenetrable wall of white. So instead of the front traveling over the top with me hurtling down the mountain in front of it, the leading edge of the storm was now traveling up the slope isolating me from the safety of the ski lodge below.

"Well so much for plan A," I thought to myself, "I guess I have no choice now but to wait it out at the top of the mountain until the storm passes."

Removing my skis I headed up into the restaurant where I fully intended to put still even more charges on my already maxed out credit card. I was halfway up the stairway when a dull thud like sound of something hitting the snow down slope caught my attention. Looking backwards I saw what appeared to be the impression of a body that had just landed in the snow shy of the base of one of the lift polls next to one of the maintenance sheds.

My first impression was that somebody had been thrown from the lift due to its sudden shut down. This didn't make any sense of course, the ski lift operators would never knowingly shut down the system with people still in transit. I was still pondering the cause when finally my subconscious decided to kick me in the ass. _"The reason doesn't matter!"_ Came that little voice in the back of my mind that never shuts up, _"The fact still remains that there is a person down slope in need of assistance."_

This presented me with a quandary. This wasn't my problem, I mean it really wasn't. I tried arguing with myself, even though I had been planning something equally foolhardy I at least had sense enough to have an escape plan. This idiot's plan, whatever it was, had obviously just blown up in their face and now they were stranded in the middle of the slope with a blizzard just seconds from burying them in an icy tomb. It was a pretty good argument I told myself, however, basic human decency mandates that although it might be none of your business you just don't leave somebody lying in the snow to freeze to death if there's anything you can do about it.

Pondering the situation just slightly longer than any civilized man should have, I jumped on my skis and raced headlong down the slope arriving at the impression made by the fallen body just seconds ahead of the blizzard. Looking in the hole I thought I saw the outline of a woman, although I couldn't really be sure because just as I arrived the sides of the impression caved in, burying whoever it was under several feet of fresh powder.

Taking my skis off I lay prone on the ground and frantically began trying to dig my way to the body of the injured person I knew was lying at the bottom. Finally my gloved hand made contact with what I thought was bare flesh. Frantically I searched with my hands trying to find a purchase of some nature which would allow me to extricate whoever it was from their would-be grave. As I prodded about I felt a strong grip of another's hand on my arm. Taking my skis and jamming them into the snow on either side of my shoulders I braced myself and pulled the unfortunate to the surface. As I was doing so the wind picked up and the blizzard which I had been trying to avoid finally reached us, stranding us both from the safety of the Lodge below.

The wind howling like a banshee and the blowing snow so dense that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face I threw the unfortunate one on my back and holding her arms together with one hand I did a three point crawl in the direction of where I thought the lift poll and the life saving shelter of the maintenance shed was at.

As it so happened luck was with me, I ran headlong into the wood shed never knowing of its existence until after my head plowed into it. Placing my unconscious burden to one side I stood up and using all my strength rammed my shoulder straight into the wooden door which proved to be remarkably stronger than it looked. Taking off my ski boot I used it as a makeshift hammer to break the hasp off the wooden frame. I then grabbed my unconscious companion and unceremoniously threw her in the shed before slamming the door behind me just as the full force of the storm hit.

There was a small battery powered light in the shed that was capable of generating barely enough illumination to see the walls. In that dim light I could make out the form of the person whose life I had just saved. Obviously female and just as obviously naked she was wearing what appeared to be a cosplay costume consisting of nothing more than a large pair of wings. As I studied her in the meager light I could see that her lips were blue and her complexion had turned ashen. It didn't take a genius to realize that she was moments from freezing to death. Stripping off my ski jacket I placed it around her shoulders and arms zipping it up as best I could. Then I opened the front of my snowsuit and pressing my bare chest against hers tried clasping my arms around her back and prayed that there was enough body heat between us to keep the two of us alive long enough for help to arrive. I fought for as long as I could but slowly and painfully I felt the warmth seeping from my body and the icy grip of deadly sleep inextricably forced my eyes closed.

"I tried," I told myself, "at least I tried."

I don't know how long I was out, it could have been minutes or it could've been hours. The next thing I remember happening was the ski patrol dragging me out of the shed and onto a waiting Sno-Cat, the storm now passed and the naked woman I had rescued nowhere to be found.

When I asked, I was told that I was the only one in the shed. For their part the Ski Patrol put it all down to hyperthermia, but I had been there so I knew better, I hoped that all that had happened was I had rescued some celebrity who didn't want to be caught in a compromising situation. What I feared though was that the woman I saved had been trying to commit suicide and upon recovering had wandered back out into the storm.

"I tried," I told myself again, "for all the good it did, I tried."


	2. Chapter 2

Lost Angel chapter 2:

World of Elegance.

It's about a nine hour drive from Lake Tahoe to Laughlin making it a good way point for travelers. If it weren't for the overly protective nature of the Ski Patrol I would have been able to get on the road the next morning. As it was I didn't get all my stuff packed and out of my ex-timeshare until noon. With the memories of yesterday's odd events still dancing in my brain I threw all that was left of my former life into my old Van and headed out to face an uncertain future.

Although I hadn't really been all that energetic while confined to the sick ward for some reason I was ravenous. Stopping at the local IHOP just before closing I ordered the biggest breakfast on the menu which I scarfed in less than 10 minutes. Oddly enough even though I had just crammed my stomach full of junk I still felt hungry.

I finally managed to get on the road about two that afternoon. Pointing the venerable VW southward for warmer climes I jumped on Highway 95 which snakes its way southeasterly along the western edge of the state. At first I thought the gnawing feeling in my stomach would go away after my breakfast finally hit bottom. After about an hour into the trip however, I noticed that instead of getting better, the empty feeling in my stomach was getting worse. I finally gave up fighting it and pulled off at the next "Sign of the Golden Arches," and loaded up on cheese burgers and continued onward, finally arriving in Laughlin around 10 pm.

Laughlin is much like Las Vegas was back in its heyday; cheap rooms, free booze and the only thing loose about the slot machines were the handles that were fixing to fall off from being yanked by frustrated patrons futilely trying to recover their losses. Cruising the strip I kept an eye out for the cheapest hotel available, at last settling on the Ramada Train Station hotel on the side of the road opposite the river. After I finished checking in with the front desk I headed down to the hotel lobby making a bee line for the nearest buffet where I fully intended to campout until this empty feeling in my stomach went away.

After about an hour of me incessantly stuffing my face I finally felt full, mainly because I think I had reached the limit of my stomach's capacity. So, I went back to my room to get some much needed rest. I had been planning on a long soak in the tub to ease the stiffness in my muscles brought about by my adventure in the maintenance shed, only to discover that due to the lateness of the hour the only rooms that the hotel had remaining were the "special accessibility rooms." AKA open shower only. Throwing my toiletries on the counter I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed. I think I was TKO before my head hit the pillow.

"_Oh my, oh my," _I heard my subconscious mocking me,_ "how the mighty have fallen. Just think, this time last year you would never have considered staying at this flea bag hotel. Now it's almost more than you can afford… moron."_

"_Why don't you be quiet?"_ I told myself.

"_You knew the chick was bad news, it's not like you couldn't see it coming. But __no,__ you just knew she loved you and it was all going to be different this time. But you ignored the warnings of all your friends. Now look at you."_

"_Alright, alright, alright already, I fucked up. Just give it a rest already._

"_You can't let it rest and you know it. All those people who broke their backs working for you. They shared your dream of making Kendal Custom Sporting Equipment a major player just like you did. You fucked them over as well as yourself. Fifteen people, husbands and wives screwed over because of your male pride."_

Sometimes I can't tell which is worse, not being able to sleep, or the dreams that come when I do.

I had managed about 5 hours of restless sleep before the sound of the shower running woke me. At first I thought the noise was coming from one of the adjacent rooms before realizing that the shower I heard running was the one in mine. With this realization I roused myself to full wakefulness, ignoring the empty feeling in my stomach, I exploded out of my bed and went to confront the interloper. It might be only a twenty dollar room, but dammit it was mine and I wasn't sharing it with anybody!

I made it most of the way to the bathroom door before I realized that I wasn't wearing anything, looking about I hastily donned my discarded clothes from the previous evening. As I hurriedly dressed I began to notice the subtle sounds of a woman's voice singing softly to herself just barely audible over the sound of the running water.

"Great," I thought to myself, "only a woman can be so vain as to enter a total strangers room and help herself to a free shower without so much as a by-your-leave."

Checking to make sure that I was appropriately attired, I prepared to forcefully eject whomever it was who had helped themselves to my accommodations.

Sealing myself to the inevitable screaming hysterics that was sure to come I ripped the door open and felt my voice die in my throat, stolen by the unearthly vision that burned itself into my brain.

Unearthly beautiful would be the best way to describe her, her naked body very well toned, lithe and lean like a tiger, curiously shaped tattoos covering her alabaster skin from head to toe. She stood about 5 foot 8; if I had to guess her three numbers were probably 36-22-36, her hair was died black on the left side and platinum on the right, cut long and stylish it cascaded in flowing waves to just past her hips. Her busts firm and very well developed somehow seeming to defy gravity. Her stomach flat and hard with just enough padding to gently soften the lines in her abdomen. Her legs were long and shapely the hard muscles of her calves and thighs easy to discern. The remains of two raw fish lying in the waste basket at her feet.

Oh, and by the way, her left wing was ebony while her right one was pure white, extending about 12 feet tip to tip.

She was standing in the middle of the bathroom floor using a hand-held shower wand to wash her back and underneath her wings. As I stood there mouth agape, staring at her she became aware of my presence and shyly hid her nakedness with her wings. Noticing that her wings, not her body, were the central point of my attention she quickly tried to hide them behind her back and yes the carpet did indeed match the drapes, which I found somewhat disconcerting, all things considered.

"I'm sorry to wake you so early in the morning Kendal." I heard her speak with uncharacteristic familiarity in my mind, "But I couldn't let an opportunity like this slip by. These handicap bathrooms are just perfect for me."

Shocked by disbelief I silently closed the bathroom door before I staggered back to bed and crawled under the covers, pulling them over my head for good measure, all the while telling myself that it was all just a dream and I would wake up shortly.

As I lay huddling under the blankets trying to will myself back to sleep I heard the sound of the water stop running, only to be replaced a few moments later by the sound of the hair dryer.

After a short while the sound of the hair dryer finally stopped. Still keeping my head covered I listened closely for the sound of the room door closing telling me that my unearthly visitor had departed. When nothing happened I slowly poked my head out from beneath the sheets and surveyed the room. Seeing nothing I softly got out of bed and quietly gathered my things. Light was still pouring out from the crack under the bathroom door. My toiletries were still in the bathroom but not wanting to risk another encounter with whatever it was I had just seen, I decided to leave them behind in favor of a hasty retreat. Reaching for the door knob my progress was halted by the gentle sound of her voice speaking to me in my head.

"That door is locked," My uninvited guest told me mentally.

"I'm sorry," I heard myself apologize in a panic, "there was obviously a mix up at the front desk, I'm probably in the wrong room. I'll just grab my things and go get it straightened out."

Sticking her head out the door the beautiful apparition looked me in the eyes and replied without moving her lips. "You're a horrible liar." She said her eyes twinkling, "Why don't you have a seat and let me finish doing my hair, then we can talk."

"If it's all the same to you I think I should just leave before things get awkward." I answered.

"More awkward than a strange woman with wings taking a shower in your hotel room at four in the morning?" She cracked with a mischievous laugh.

"Well you got me there," I admitted as I tried the stubborn door knob.

"Go and sit down," she ordered, "if after we're done talking you still want to bolt I won't stop you."

Trapped I realized that I wasn't going anywhere so I did as I was told and sat down on the bed and stared at the blank TV screen wondering if I was ever going to wake up.

A few minutes later she emerged from the bathroom clad only in a towel with wings still attached and sat down in the chair across from me and smiled.

After a few seconds studying my face she began, again speaking without moving her mouth, "Well I guess we should begin with introductions. My name is World of Elegance, as you can tell by the wings I'm an Angel and yes I am the person you saved from freezing to death yesterday. Your name I know is Kendal but beyond that I know nothing except that I need your help."

"Are you really an Angel?" I felt myself ask involuntarily, "as in a Heavenly Angel?

"Kind of, sort of." She answered cryptically, "but more like a familiar, you don't really hear too much about us and when you do it's usually bad press, familiars being more closely associated with my mothers group than my fathers."

"So where did you get off to after I pulled you out of the snow yesterday?"

"That was cute the way you tried to use your body to keep the two of us warm," she told me, "but if we had stayed that way we both would've probably wound up freezing to death. So I hid… elsewhere until the storm passed and help arrived."

"Where did you go? I had the ski patrol tearing up the whole side of the mountain looking for you?"

"Let's leave that for later… After we have had our chance to talk."

"Be honest with me," I asked pressing her, "where you really in danger of freezing to death? Or are you just trying to massage my ego?"

"Oh most definitely, if you hadn't been there I would be frozen stiff right now. But enough questions. I have a proposition for you that I really wish you would consider, but before I ask I really need to know a little bit about you.

Sighing, I looked her in the eyes and answered "All you really need to know about me is that I'm a loser. My dad just passed away a month ago after a drawn out battle with cancer. My bitch of an ex-wife took advantage of the distraction, and by sleeping with both mine and her lawyers managed to take me for everything I had, house, cars and my business, throwing me out on the street for good measure. For the record the divorce from my wife was just finalized and the contents of that old VW Vanagon are just about the only things she let me keep!"

"Sounds like you've been given a pretty tough row to hoe these last few months." She said sympathetically.

"10 years of hard work all just pissed down the drain!" I remembered with bitter anger, "I poured my heart into that business. I know it wasn't much, just a small sporting goods manufacturing plant. I only had about 15 employees and we made custom surf boards, in-line skates and special snow skis, gone now, along with most of my dreams."

"My mistress likes to say that if you live to see your dream fulfilled then you didn't dream big enough."

"Is that so?" I snapped, "I used to live in a quaint little house in Carmel and through my business owned Timeshares in Tahoe and Hawaii. That's all in the past however, as of yesterday I joined the ranks of the homeless, I was living in the timeshare that used to belong to my business but it just got liquidated along with all my other assets when the divorce decree became final. So, you might as well be aware up front as far as any aid I might lend you, you would probably be better off asking elsewhere."

"So you're telling me you have no place to stay, no place to go and no one who cares."

"You just hit the nail square on the head lady."

"Well then," she began her eyes twinkling, "would you be interested in an adventure?"

"I don't think you're getting the picture," I explained to her, "I'm busted, and I can barely afford the gasoline for that cranky old VW. Much less afford to go on an adventure with someone who is more than likely just a figment of my imagination."

"I assure you I am real enough." World of Elegance said indignantly.

"Even so there is nothing I can do to help you."

"So you're not going to help me?" She stated sadly, "I thought after yesterday you might…"

"Don't get me wrong," I backpedaled, "I'm not saying I won't help and I'm not saying I don't want to help either, it's just that in my current situation I don't see how I can help."

"You say that, but still it seems that you are rejecting my request without even knowing what I'm going to ask."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound harsh," I sighed, "I'm just pissed at the world right now but the fact still remains that I'm pretty much down and out myself, even so what can I offer you?"

"You're soul." She said in all seriousness.

"What!"

"I'm in a bit of a bind here," she explained sheepishly, "One such as I who is an alien to this world can only survive for a very short period of time alone on this plane. I was struck from behind and have fallen to this place with no way to get home."

"Let me get this straight, you were attacked!" I interrupted.

"The battle between good and evil is an ongoing struggle," she explained, "and as my current situation clearly indicates; good doesn't always win. As to the specifics, I don't know exactly what happened but I was hit from behind and my host and I were forced apart. Since my host hasn't come for me it is possible that I might be requiring your help for the foreseeable future."

"Your host?" I asked her.

"I'm sorry," the mysterious Angel replied, "Your language is limited, and host is really a misleading concept. I'm just really part of another… more complete… being. We've been split in twain and if not quickly rejoined I might perish, or even worse survive...alone, only half of my former self.

"I see… I think, but where does my soul enter into this equation."

"It's a matter of survival you see, I require another's soul in which to live and there are scant few of them on this plane that Angels can merge with. It was all I could do to get as close to you as I did."

"And now that you have found me you're asking me to let you stay in my soul?"

"Yes, at least for the time being, I need you to help me hide until I get a handle on my current predicament."

"It sounds easy enough," I answered her suspiciously, "as a matter of fact too easy. So what's the downside?"

"Angels are parasites." She shyly admitted.

"Parasites?" I asked her in astonishment.

"Oh yes, I need your soul in order to supply me with the necessary life force energy my kind need to survive."

"You need my life force energy, like a vampire needs blood?" I asked fearfully.

"Don't you start to panic on me, I get enough crap like that at home," the Angel told me, "I'm not a blood sucker, although now that I think about it there might be some of Vald's DNA somewhere in my make up."

"That's not really comforting," I told her.

"Let me see if I can explain it more clearly. There are two types of energy required to sustain life, without sufficient amounts of both I cannot survive. The first type of energy, physical energy, is the energy you get from the sun through the consumption of plants and animals. The second type of energy, spiritual energy, is best referred to as the psychic resonance of the soul, something your science is just now beginning to understand. In my case, an Angel like me cannot even be born without the help of a host, someone who will help me meet both these energy demands in order to sustain my life. Somebody whose life energy is compatible with this plane and who is capable of allowing us to merge our souls with theirs. Since me and my permanent host have become separated I was hoping that you might…"

"So what you're asking me to do is stand in for your lost host?" I finished for her.

"Oh yes, and another thing, in order to fulfill the first of those aforementioned energy demands as long as I am resident in your soul you will be eating for two. Kind of like being pregnant without the benefit of the tax deduction, this, by the way, is why you have been so hungry lately. The psychic resonance energy stuff I can do myself as long as I have a compatible soul in which to reside.

"Let me get this straight," I asked curiously, "does that mean that you are already squatting in my soul?"

"Well yes I am. How do you think I got from the top of that damn mountain to here? Wherever here happens to be."

"Well I thought maybe you just flew down or something."

"I'm an Angel not some migratory bird!" She told me in all seriousness. "What happened yesterday was, after I crashed I put you to sleep and crawled inside your soul to keep the two of us from freezing to death! Although you didn't know it until now you have been eating for the two of us since I fell to Earth. Last night after you insisted on going to bed while we were both still starving I decided to go out for a little while and forage for food."

"I guess that explains the dead fish." I thought out loud.

"As I said Angels got to eat too." She answered with a smile.

"I know it's something you don't want to think about right now but is it possible that your old host is dead?"

"No," World of Elegance answered flatly, "Urd, that's my other half's name, is what you might call a goddess, very powerful, very difficult to kill and is still very much alive. I would know if it were different. We were forced apart while we were still very high up. I know she fell to Earth some considerable distance East of where you found me but I don't know exactly where.

"Kendal," the sound of her voice changing in my head taking on a pleading tone. "The simple fact of the matter is I'm lost and alone and I need a place to stay and you are the only one who can help me. I know you weren't expecting this when you saved my life but could you please, please take responsibility for that life and allow me to hideout in your soul?"

"Since you already moved in there why bother to ask? Or is there something you're not telling me?"

"There is a lot I'm not telling you, simply because I just don't have time to explain it all. What I can tell you is this, when an Angel is born her soul takes the shape of their host. What you see of me here standing before you is the true nature of mine and Urd's soul. One whose soul is torn constantly between the light and the darkness. If you allow me to stay then my soul will try to reshape yours in its image and when I leave, you will mark my absence with great sorrow. These are rules that govern my existence. Yesterday was an emergency which is why I was in your soul without asking. But today is a different matter and I know that Urd would want you to be aware of the consequences of your kindness. Since you already know about me it would be safest if you were to open your soul and let me hangout until I get a handle on my situation, but you will suffer for it."

"So basically you're asking me to suffer the consequences of the actions of another in order to save the life of someone else who I don't even know."

"That's about the size of it," She acknowledged.

"Other than being totally screwed, just exactly what is your situation?"

"I'm not sure myself;" she admitted uncomfortably, "Tenuous would be the best way to describe it. Since my fall to Earth was the result of actions from the other side it is possible that they are looking for me."

"You used the word 'safest' just now, so you know I have to ask this: What will happen to me if they catch up to you while you're still hiding out in my soul?"

"You're right," World of Elegance sighed, a disappointed look on her face, "I shouldn't have asked, if they do find me inside you they will probably just kill you out of hand if only to get to me."

"Hell, this just keeps getting better and better!" I said in disgust, "You were just going to gloss over that last part had I not asked weren't you?"

Busted, she looked down at the floor obviously ashamed. "Please forgive me," she asked softly, "but this isn't just my survival that we are talking about here."

There was a time in my recent past, when just that small amount of duplicity would have gotten the offender permanently deleted from my friends list. As a result over the years the list of people I trusted had steadily shrunk to zero, leaving me with no one to turn to in my time of need. Who knows, maybe if I had been just a little less rigid I might have had someone in my corner to give me a hand when my life went to shit. So, oddly enough I knew where she was coming from and understood her level of desperation at having to ask a total stranger for help. I even understood why she felt the need to skirt the truth.

My old life was gone, erased like ski tracks in a snow storm. It was, I realized, time to start anew, starting with a radical attitude adjustment on my part. "You are forgiven," I answered her truthfully, "But please don't make a habit of it, now explain to me how exactly do you go about getting inside."

"It's really very simple," World of Elegance said with an air of relief, "A person's soul is a unique occurrence in the universe. It's a place where the essence of your life force is stored, kind of like a safe deposit box. It's the contents of this box that you take with you to the next life and like a safe deposit box it can be opened and closed to access what's inside. What I need for you to do is open that box and let me place the contents of my box in next to yours."

"Okay and how do I do that?"

"You can't," World of Elegance told me, "you humans don't know how. However there is a way to work around that restriction. That safe deposit box is only as secure as the guard who watches it. If that guard, AKA you, falls asleep then anybody who knows how can come along and peak inside. What I need for you to do is lie back down and go back to sleep then I'll work my way back inside."

Crawling back under the covers I did as I was told, a few seconds later World of Elegance joined me spooning up next to me from behind. Shortly thereafter I remember dozing off not waking until well after nine o'clock in the morning. Getting up I did a double check of the room to make sure that last night wasn't just a dream. Sure enough, the remains of Elegance's fishing expedition were still in the garbage pail next to the toilet.

"Well, I hope you're comfortable in there this morning." I said speaking to World of Elegance not really expecting an answer.

"As a matter of fact I am quite comfortable." I heard her answer me.

"You mean we can communicate while you are stuck in my soul?"

"Of course I can silly. How do you think I communicate with my other half, Urd?"

"Sorry," I answered her back, "I didn't think about it. So tell me what is on the menu for today?"

"First off," she answered, "is eat breakfast. Make sure it is a big one, high in calories because you are eating for two now and I'm still trying to recover my strength after my fall to Earth the other day."

Doing as she instructed, I stuffed my face with as much food as I thought my stomach could handle at the hotel's buffet. Then I hopped into the venerable VW and topped off the tank before pointing it eastward towards Kingman. When we got there I hopped onto I40 eastbound towards Flagstaff. Once on the freeway I pressed the pedal all the way to the floorboards getting the old Van up to almost 70 miles an hour before the wind resistance overcame the anemic engine of the 40-year-old rolling relic. As I traveled down the freeway I decided it would be a good idea to get to know more about my invisible friend.

It's amazing sometimes the misconceptions we have of those things we only think we understand. For instance did you know that Angels are Oviparous? They have a lifespan that is limited to that of their god or goddess host and these so called divine beings themselves grow old like all other living things.

World of Elegance was more than happy to tell me about where she was from and what it was like to be an Angel. The visuals she explained to me have no cross comparison to our world, so it would be useless for me to try to describe. But the emotions, her feelings of where she lived and what she did came across clearly. World of Elegance's host was a special kind of goddess called a Norn, one of the three divine guardians of time. Who for some reason or another thought it was a good idea to get herself banished to the mortal plane, Midgard as they refer to it, in order to personally manage her younger half sister's love life.

When asked how she was able to survive such a great fall without injury, she explained to me that Angels such as herself have the ability to manipulate the environment around them in ways that would baffle our most advanced thinking. But, she reassured me, all she was really doing was applying an unknown science, (to us anyway,) to the natural world around her. For instance, the reason that she was able to fall from such a great height unharmed was because she manipulated her aura to deflect the atmosphere as it flowed around her in much the same way the shuttle reenters the atmosphere by creating a plasma barrier between her and her exposed skin. The conversion process, she told me, requires a tremendous amount of energy, more than any living being should be capable of generating.

The reason that she was able to do it anyway is also what makes her kind different from most other living things. Angels are intelligent parasites, as such they are not limited to just what they can eat and excrete but are also possessed with the ability to absorb energy directly from the environment and other living things. The process is much like the regenerative braking systems on new electric cars. What that translates to in terms of practical application is that while she was falling she generated an aura about her body that she used as a shield. As this shield came in contact with the atmosphere it heated up generating energy that she reabsorb and fed back into the process, protecting her as she fell to the Earth. "And no," she told me, "Angels are not born knowing this. It is something we have to be taught."

She also explained how she used a slightly different process when she impacted the side of the mountain. In that instance she dissipated the energy at the moment of impact then reabsorbed it at a slower rate to keep the force from shattering her body.

"Of course none of this is free for nothing," she admitted, "the process of up converting and down converting from one state to another involves a loss of a considerable amount of energy at each stage of the process, the deficit, of course, being made up for by energy drawn directly from the Angel's strength. By the time I collided with the ground I was pretty much at my limit. Believe it or not, if you had not found me and dragged me over to that shed I most likely would have perished because the cold of the snow would have zapped what little strength I had remaining."

This made me both happy and sad, happy because I did indeed save someone from dying. Sad, because you would like to think of Angels as somehow immune to the pain and suffering that we experience on the mortal plane.

"Why does Heaven need guardians of time for?" I asked her out of curiosity, "Doesn't that sort of negate freedom of choice."

"Don't get yourself confused," she answered me in a playful voice, "everybody has their own God given freedom of choice. However, the price of that gift is that there is no freedom FROM choice, nor the consequences of the choices you make."

"So you're like the Heavenly version of the police, sent to keep us in line and maybe extract retribution when we make a mess of things?"

"Quit trying to act so stupid, it really doesn't suit you at all." She ribbed me, "Cause and effect are all part of the living universe. We hardly ever take an active hand in the mechanics. What we mostly do is push back against the darkness, against those who would deny others their freedom of choice."

"I see, I think."

"No you don't. But you can't be expected to grasp the whole concept at first brush. Suffice it to say that time itself flows like a river, and a person's freedom to choose is integral to keeping it following the proper course. However, since these choices are what is causing the river to follow a certain path, bad choices then can cause the river to change course and flow in a direction that it wasn't supposed to go. My host and her two sisters monitor that flow and make adjustments as required to keep it flowing in the direction that the Almighty One desires."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but how?"

"It varies depending on just how much correction is needed; the preferred way is through the dispensing of Heaven's grace, the granting of a small wish to individuals who are deemed worthy. By allowing those people whose vision of the future aligns with ours more easily achieve their goals, we help keep the river of time flowing its proper path. However, often times we find ourselves at loggerheads with Niflheim."

"Who or what the hell is Niflheim?"

"Exactly." World of Elegance answered me.

"Exactly what?"

"Hel is Niflheim, Niflheim is Hel."

It was about this point in our relationship that I began to get a glimmer of just how deep a pile of shit I had stepped into.

As we approached Williams, Arizona, World of Elegance became aware of some type of psychic presence in the Grand Canyon. At her request we turned northward and headed towards the South rim. Fortunately for us one of the few things that my bitch of an ex-wife left me were my National Park entrance passes that I purchased for my business each year so that I could show off my companies products. Arriving in the parking lot on the South rim World of Elegance directed me further northward so we began to circumvent the canyon heading towards the north rim. About half way around the rim where the road is only a few yards from the cliff edge World of Elegance had me stop the Van. As soon as I got out of the Van World of Elegance manifested and giving me a quick mischievous smiled turned and jumped headlong off the side of the cliff. Horrified I ran to the edge and watched as she performed an intricate series of twists and turns catching herself with her wings before she disappeared into the cloud layer below. Sometime later she exploded up the side of the cliff, her face streaked with blood and two dead pigeons, one in each hand.

I was having a hard enough time as it was getting a handle on this fantasy versus reality stuff. But this last stunt was totally over the top. When I asked her what she was doing she told me in a matter-of-fact voice that she was hungry and just wanted to stop for a snack. Fish and fowl being her primary staple because people tend to notice half eaten large furry animals lying along the roadside. For my part I told her that the next time she felt like getting the munchies she should just give me a heads up and I would stop at the next McDonald's.

Gobbling down the pigeons faster than the feathers could settle to the ground she hopped back in the van and we continued northward. Once on the north side of the ridge World of Elegance had me stop at an oddly shaped formation of rocks off to one side of the road. Jumping out of the Van she lay at the base of the rocks staring up at the sky.

"Mind if I ask what's up?" I inquired, trying not to get distracted by her ethereal beauty.

"This place," she began, "used to be a holy place; a long long time ago people came here to pray. Those prayers had a special kind of power you see, and some of that power is still present, stored in the surrounding environment."

"So are you tapping into that power now?"

"More like I'm aligning myself with it." She answered, "The second form of energy needed to sustain life, what I called resonance spiritual energy is different from my world to yours.

"I thought you told me that you were handling those demands yourself."

"I am, but I still need your soul to serve as a converter of sorts. By placing my soul inside of yours you enable me to absorb that second form of energy, this is why I can't survive on my own. Right now I'm trying to get in tune with your world, make myself less dependent on you."

"You know I don't really mind that you are dependent on me." _(Perfect scenario, I told myself, beautiful woman totally dependent on me, what is there to mind?)_

"You're sweet, but the struggle for control of creation has been going on since before the dawn of man and everything about this conflict proceeds at a glacier like pace. If I'm not quickly reunited with my host it is possible that I might be stuck down here for a very, very long time. So you see, it only makes good sense that I be as prepared as possible."

"I see, that way you won't be so exposed should something happen to me?" I asked her rhetorically.

"I will allow no harm to befall you!" She told me indignantly, "On that you have my promise!"

As I carefully studied the expression on her face I noticed that while World of Elegance talked a good game her eyes were telling a different story. She was lost and alone with no one but a perfect stranger to depend on. Walking up to her I squatted down and looked her straight in the eye.

"You're afraid." I said.

"No," she answered, returning my gaze, "I stopped being afraid a long time ago. I am terrified! You see I'm only recently reconciled with my other half, for years she kept me sequestered inside, away from the outside world. I just don't know all the things I need to know about this world. To make matters worse my host was hit so hard and fast that we didn't have time to disentangle our souls. So she had no choice but to entrust her soul to me so I could escape. So you see I have her life, my life and now your life all riding on my shoulders and even for an Angel that is a lot of weight to carry."

"Well then, don't try to carry it all alone. I know it's not much but I promise you I will do everything I can to help see you to the end of it."

"Well then," she said, jumping up suddenly, "let's be on our way then."


	3. Chapter 3

_**In the original story **__**Snow Angel**__** the protagonists were living in a two tiered environment, simply expressed as Heaven and Earth. The discussion involving Schrödinger's Cat was put forth as a suspension of disbelief tool necessary to establish the ground rules governing the world in which they lived. In order to maintain the integrity of the discussion such as it is in this story I was forced to create a three tiered environment, Heaven, Earth and a place in-between, the other Heaven where World of Elegance was born. **_

Lost Angel chapter 3:

Betrayal.

Unfortunately Elegance's spontaneous actions had presented me with a conundrum, since she had left my soul in the middle of the day in order to go hunting I was now wide awake and there was no way for her to get back inside. This was further complicated by the fact that gorgeous naked women with fully functional wings tend to attract the attention of the Park Constabulary. World of Elegance explained to me that she could retract her wings so they were not as noticeable however she had forgotten about the fact that she had no clothing nor enough power to reconstruct any from the available material.

Having her stay concealed under my ski clothes we left the Grand Canyon by the eastern exit. Driving back to Flagstaff I stopped at the first Western Warehouse I could find and went shopping for some suitable clothing for her. Parking in the rear of the store in order to avoid prying eyes I used an old carpenter's tape to measure her three sizes before wandering inside, in order to purchase her three sets of women's jeans and five open backed tops to accommodate her wings. I also bought her some open toed sandals for her feet almost as an afterthought.

Back in the Van I tossed World of Elegance her new clothes and waited outside while she got dressed. Based on the way her eyes lit up when I handed her the shopping bag up I concluded that they must not be that much into gift giving up in heaven. I swear she looked just like a little kid at Christmas!

As her way of saying thank you she stepped outside and modeled her new look for me. I must say for my first foray into feminine fashion I didn't do too bad. The jeans tightly accentuated her body, the stretchy fabric of the pull over tops highlighting her slim waste and other…assets, while leaving room in the back for her wings to move freely.

Stepping away from the Van World of Elegance put on an impromptu fashion show for my benefit. Extending her wings to full length she slowly pirouetted about so I could see her from all sides. Walking behind her I studied her wings seeming to be so natural a part of her. Admiring the fit of her jeans as well as other parts of her… figure, I continued to immerse myself in the visual perfection that was mine alone to behold. As I continued to wonder at the near perfect symmetry of her form and the oddly shaped tattoos that graced her, Elegance's body suddenly lost its relaxed air and stiffened up as if she was sensing some danger.

"STOP!" she ordered me, "Don't move!"

Sensing that there was something amiss I did as I was told. Keeping her wings fully extended World of Elegance turned around. Making a complete 360 before stopping with her back to me.

"Do me a favor and extend your arms to either side and then bring them in together in front of you," She instructed her voice starting to quiver.

After doing so World of Elegance then told me, "Keeping your arms pointing straight in front of you walk towards me until I tell you to stop."

Again I did as asked, walking up behind her until my out stretched hands touched her back directly in the center between her wings.

The next sound I heard required no explanation yet defies earthly description, a sound that once heard can never be forgotten, the sound of a soul in such agony that no human could possibly fathom. It was the sound of an Angel crying.

Slowly World of Elegance collapsed to the ground dragging me with her as I tried to hold her up. Desperately I hugged her tightly as sobs convulsed her body, to me it almost seemed that an invisible hand was reaching deep inside her, ripping the sorrow from the bottom of her soul.

"Elegance what's wrong!" I screamed in panic, "What's happening, tell me what the matter is! Why are you crying!" I begged her, "Please tell me, please!"

"Blind… Blind… Blind spot!" She forced out between sobs, "Be… be… betrayed! She betrayed me! She betrayed me." The Angel cried in silent agony.

Panicking that somebody was sure to come looking for the source of that god-awful racket, (Unlikely, since I was hearing it all in my head.), I hastily loaded her into the passenger seat of the Van before quickly exiting the parking lot of the store as fast as safety allowed.

We were an hour down the road before she calmed down enough to tell me what was wrong. Between her silent sobs I finally pieced together her story. It would seem that an Angel's wings serve as a seventh sense. Not widely used even in heaven they work as a kind of radar feeding the Angel and her goddess companion composition and positional information about objects in the environment around her. But this radar also has a blind spot, created by the small area of her back between her wings. Urd's Angel had been doing her job insuring that the way ahead was clear when she had been attacked just as they reached the halfway point over our world, Midgard.

World of Elegance told me with some pride that her host Urd is unique among all other goddesses, being born from the union between a god and a demon, she is one of a very few divine beings allowed access to both realms. Urd, her host, had been returning from a visit with her mother when she had detected the presence of another goddess, a Valkyrie named Lind behind her. Being a friend Urd didn't pay much attention to her as she prepared to enter the gate that would have brought her back to heaven.

What precipitated World of Elegance's emotional meltdown was that as I had been admiring her backside during her impromptu fashion show I had walked through her wing's blind spot, queuing her in to the existence of a weakness she didn't even know she had. Using me as a foil she had triangulated the narrow area behind her that the attack had to have originated from and had reached one inescapable conclusion. The attacker had to have been directly behind her. Specifically, it had to have been her good friend Lind. A cowardly attack meant to strand her down on the mortal plane where she would have frozen to death in the snow had I not saved her.

The rest of the ride into Flagstaff was made in complete silence, the soft sound of the old VW's motor purring and the tires on the pavement the only noise intruding into our little world. World of Elegance was sitting across from me just staring blankly out the window, her thoughts a mystery, the beautiful but somehow mischievous expression that normally graced her countenance was gone, her new clothes now covered with dirt where she had lain prostrate on the ground.

As for me, I was having trouble believing in the existence of God, for even though I had just met one of his very own Angels, I just couldn't fathom why a just God would have allowed such agony to befall such a beautiful soul as hers.

I was also very worried about the change I could feel coming over her. In the short time I had known her World of Elegance had always carried an air of playful happiness about her. Even when she was confessing her fears she had never completely lost that warm light hearted mischievousness. Now I could tell that that was changing, that the warmth that once so freely emanated from her was beginning to fade, like the dying embers of a fire that might become forever extinguished if not quickly re-stoked. With a start I realized that that job had fallen to me!

Now I have always been an avid outdoorsman. I loved getting out and enjoying nature, hiking, mountain biking and especially skiing. So as you might imagine I was somewhat athletic. A problem for me though was I had no natural talent. Any sport I ever became even half way proficient in was at the expense of a lot of hard work and self sacrifice. Not that I'm complaining mind you, I just didn't have the right stuff, that magic, the little extra something every competitor needs to truly excel. So while I might enjoy as many good days on the slopes as the season has to offer, I just didn't have what it took to make it to the next level. Nevertheless, I did try out for the Olympic team a few times in my younger days. I almost made it past the first round of eliminations one year had it not been for an equipment failure that took me down just seconds from crossing the finish line.

It was that incident that first spurred my interest in custom made skis, and what led me to start my own small business later on. It was during this time that I would sometimes brush shoulders with aspiring athletes who later became household names.

It was also around that time I first became familiar with "The Look." If you own a mirror then you know what I'm talking about. The look that comes over everyone sometime during their life. The look of defeat, that unknowing acceptance of the fact that you have already lost even though the fight isn't over. The "I just want to quit and go home," look. The look that that spells defeat to even the most seasoned competitor once your opponent sees it on your face.

World of Elegance had that look on her face now. Cast down from heaven, betrayed by one of her own, dependent on a total stranger for help she had every reason to feel despondent. For my part however, it was all I could do to not reach over and slap her! Don't get me wrong it, wasn't that I was unsympathetic to her plight, but I had cast my lot with hers and the defeatist attitude that I could feel coming over her scared the shit out of me!

Even though it was still early in the evening with plenty of daylight left I was worried about Elegance's state of mind so I decided that it would be better if I were to pull into the first cheap hotel I could find. Paying extra, I had the clerk check us in to one of the handicap rooms so she could shower. Sneaking her in though the side exit I had hoped she would have appreciated what I had done but she didn't even appear to notice.

Walking over to the center of the room World of Elegance robotically took off her clothes and curled up in the fetal position on the bed. It was way too early in the evening for me to be sleepy so I stripped down and stepped into the shower cleansing my body as I tried clearing my mind.

Not that I even cared about my discomfort due to my concern for Elegance, but using those handicapped showers is an exercise in frustration for people of normal stature. The wands are movable and mounted down low for ease of use by people in wheelchairs. So if you just want to stand under the running water like you normally would, what happens instead is that the shower head moves to one side when the water is turned on spraying out onto the middle of the floor instead of the shower area. Using both your hands to massage your scalp while shampooing your hair requires that you sit on the cold tile and slide your head underneath. World of Elegance found these types of facilities quite useful however, because they allowed her to stand in the middle of the floor and hose herself down without worrying about her wings. Of course this was all for naught if she didn't avail herself of them.

I knew that her mind was in a state of turmoil. She was unsure about which path to take and although I was uncertain as to all the choices that lay before her I was afraid that the wrong choice would have far-reaching consequences. Even though I was only a mortal and she an Angel something in my gut was telling me that this lost one needed someone to help her find her way so I hatched a desperate plan.

Exiting the shower I noticed that World of Elegance hadn't moved from where she lay.

"Elegance, you really need to clean up before you retire otherwise you'll get the blankets all dirty." I told her.

"It's the correct look don't you think," she answered me without humor, "a soiled Angel lying helpless on your bed?"

For some reason her self-loathing struck a raw nerve in me, speaking more firmly than I intended I ordered, "Dammit Elegance I paid extra for this room just so you could shower so get off that dam bed and clean up!" Looking at me with a wooden expression on her face she did as she was told and soon I heard the sound of the running water telling me that she was at least partially cognizant of her situation.

I was thinking about confronting her regarding her intentions but decided against doing so, fearing that if my suppositions were correct World of Elegance might decide to abandon me in favor of trying to make it on her own, which by her own admission wouldn't be very far. That's why I needed to do something to help her get her head back in the game now, before she started second guessing herself.

Knocking softly on the bathroom door, I asked her, "Elegance, can I talk to you for little bit?"

"About what?" She answered woodenly in my mind.

"I was wondering does God exist?" I asked in all seriousness.

"God as in God Almighty, or God as in the Almighty One?" She asked me in return.

"What's the difference?"

"The current Almighty One, AKA mine and Urd's father, is an elected post. One God chosen from a host of candidates deemed wise enough and powerful enough to rule Heaven and yes he does exist, he even gave me a message that I/we were supposed to pass on to mother while we were visiting.

"If you are referring to the Christian God, as in the creator of all things, then my honest answer is I just don't know. As a matter of fact you mortals probably have a better handle on that question than we do."

"How is that even possible, you're an Angel? Don't you talk to God all the time?"

"You're a sweet man, Kendal, but you're anointing me with a divinity which is not rightfully mine. Both me and my host are living, breathing and seriously flawed beings. Evolutionally speaking we are only slightly more evolved than you are. It is very possible that in a few thousand years you will be as advanced as we are today. You might even come to surpass us if we are not careful."

"Still, I would have thought that with your more advance science that you would have a better handle on that subject than we do."

"Not very likely," Elegance said as she poked her head out of the shower and smiled cynically.

"Why not?"

"Arrogance," she said sadly, "you see we became too full of ourselves, too sure that we had all the answers. So much so that we began to deny his existence, we even forbade others of our kind to speak of him openly and drove all discussion of the subject from public discourse. As a result there is now mounting evidence that God, the true God, has turned his face from us."

"What kind of evidence?"

"Chaos surrounds us," she shuddered, "everywhere you look Niflheim and Hel grows more powerful with each passing day while we just get weaker. I can no longer see the hand of God at work in the world around me and everywhere entropy is seeping into our world."

"So, despite the grim prognosis you're saying that you can see evidence of God's existence if you know where to look."

"Yes and no, you see there can be no proof of God's existence beyond that which you already perceive," World of Elegance acknowledged, "and no matter how powerful the evidence you might find is, it will never be enough."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"The best way to explain the reason why this is so can be found in a mental exercise called Schrödinger's cat."

"Never heard of it." I lied.

"There is a very good explanation of it on YouTube if you want to look it up. I'm twisting it slightly to accommodate our situation, but basically it's a thought experiment that implies the possibility of alternate realities, which is a non sequitur considering what my mistress's job description is, reality itself being observational in nature.

"The experiment goes something like this, set a cat in a box, set up a trap which has a 50/50 possibility of causing the cat to die. Then close the box so you can't see the result. This creates a situation called super positional realities, one where the cat is alive and one where it isn't. Now being a cat lover you want the cat to survive, and when you open the box sure enough the cat is still breathing. It can be postulated then that your observation and personal leanings caused the super positional realities to collapse into the desired result. But then let's suppose that two cat haters enter the room the instant the box is opened and now the cat that should have been alive is now dead. What happened? Did the cat haters impose their desired reality over that of the cat lover? If so what happens next? Have the two super positional realities now become two separate realities, one for the cat haters and a separate one for the cat lovers? Or did a single reality realign itself based on majority rule?

"Now, if it's the first case and there are all these alternate realities created by conflicting observations then just how many of these alternate realities can we squeeze into the finite universe?

"Or suppose it is the second case and there is only one reality but that reality is having to constantly reorganize itself based on majority rule by the ever changing observations of the people in it. The question then becomes, how many re-alignments can this single reality endure before it breaks down into complete chaos?

"The fact of the matter is that both of these possibilities are nothing more than exercises in stupidity. There is room for only one reality in the universe, God's reality! It's God's observation of us and the universe we live in that holds reality constant. Take that a step further, since God is infinite and the universe is not, then God must be observing us from beyond, outside of the box. As far as Schrödinger is concerned the fate of that poor kitty was sealed the moment the lid was closed, resigned to the mechanics of the universe as God saw fit to create it. If there is to be any divine intervention it would be in the form of a 'convenient coincidence' where the finger of god caused something to happen that might have happened anyway. But sometimes, just sometimes, those 'convenient coincidences' are just a little too convenient to be a coincidence and in those rare circumstances you can see the hand of God if you look hard enough. This is what gives people like me who believe the evidence that he is and at the same time makes it impossible for me to prove it to others."

"Sounds a lot like double speak to me Elegance, evidence that doesn't prove anything?"

"You can think of it like that. You see, like the cat we all live inside the box and like the cat lover God occasionally lifts the lid and sticks his hand inside, keeping us from harm, sending us help in our time of need," She said, her voice catching, "or just to pat us on the head for reassurance. When he does this sometimes he leaves evidence of his passing. But it will always be impossible to prove because while he can see in, we can't see out. This is why I can close my eyes at night confident in the fact that everything will be the same when I wake up tomorrow… and why I'm still praying so hard for things to be different." She spoke sadly looking towards her ebony wing.

It was that subtle catch in her voice and the slight change in the set of her jaw that told me that her head was back in the game. With a mental sigh of relief I pressed on with the finishing moves in our verbal game of chess.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, but it's just that I have trouble believing in a kind and just God who would allow something like this to happen to you."

"Sometimes you have no choice but to trust in his plan and put your head down and try to bull you way through." World of Elegance said in a matter of fact voice.

"You still defend him? Even after this!"

"He doesn't need me to defend him! And he has no obligation to answer your questions! He is, because my faith demands that it be so!"

"Then why, why did he allow this to happen to you! Why would he allow one of his very own Angels to be cast down by another!"

"I can't answer you that," World of Elegance spoke sadly, "but I have faith, as must we all, that it is all in keeping with his grand plan. Maybe this is all just a test, a test of my faith, maybe a test of your faith. Possibly it was just jealousy on the part of another. Or, for all I really know maybe Lind just had a weapons malfunction."

"Who are you trying to convince," I said sarcastically, "me or yourself? They are afraid of you! Why else let you get so far from the safety of Heaven and that other place, Niflheim, then strike you from behind? You need to face facts; you and your Goddess Urd have been cast down! That much should be obvious, the only thing not obvious to you at least, is the reason why."

"I don't know the reason why," she cried, "but neither do you. So don't you dare stand there with that smug look on your face when we both know that you are just as clueless as I! If we are being punished for some unknown failing then we must eventually address the problem and put the matter straight, however, that cannot be my immediate concern. Urd's soul can only survive for so long on the outside. I must concentrate on finding her before time runs out otherwise there won't be an us for God to punish!"

"Good to hear you decided on a way forward," I told her, "but you still haven't told how we go about accomplishing it?"

"We?" She questioned, "Does that mean you still have faith in me?"

"In you…yes. God…not so much, this other fellow, the Almighty One, not at all."

"Well then, basically we are going to have to wing it." She smiled at her unintended pun, "For now all I know for sure is that we must continue in the direction of the rising sun."

"How do you know which way to go, do you still have some sort of psychic connection with her?"

"No, nothing quite so exotic, her soul is still linked to her physical body and is trying to return, all I do is go in the direction it pulls me."

"Sort of like a built in compass then?"

"Precisely and Kendal?" She asked timidly.

"Yes."

"Thank you." She said softly.

"For what? I didn't do anything."

"For helping me find my path."

"Don't thank me; I was just trying to scare you off."

"You are such a horrible liar." World of Elegance smiled before disappearing back into the shower.

"Now I have another question." I shouted through the closed door.

"Now what do you want to know?"

"You mentioned yesterday in reference to efficiencies regarding the up conversion and down conversion of borrowed energy that there are always losses in the process. This has me wondering if it would be more efficient for you to eat your own meals rather than have me eat for two?"

"Just exactly what are you saying?"

"Would you be interested in some Kentucky fried fowl for dinner?"


	4. Chapter 4

Lost Angel chapter 4:

Hild.

Getting on the road early the next morning, World of Elegance once again resident in my soul, I stopped by the local Mickey D's in order to load up on OJ and Egg Mc Muffins in order to quell the growling noise coming from my stomach brought about by my inability to score more than a drumstick and a wing from the 20 piece bucket of chicken we "shared" for dinner last night.

About a half hour east of Flagstaff is the town of Williams, home to Meteor Crater. Normally nothing more than a blip on the site seeing map. I visited it once when I was 18, discovered like everybody else it was just a big hole in the ground and never went back. For World of Elegance, however, this was a significant power locus combining the energies of earth and heaven into a powerful amalgam. So of course, she just had to stop and indulge.

"What about Urd?" I asked her. "I thought we were up against a time limit."

"You're right of course, but this place has a unique link to both worlds." She acknowledged. "The pull of Urd's soul on mine is fading. By stopping here it might, and I stress the word might, empower both hers and mine souls and it might, again might, buy her some more time and help me find her."

"She doesn't have that much time left now does she?"

"A few days at most, she is fading very fast." World of Elegance spoke sadly, "Tell me please, what would you do if you were me?"

Of course, I've never been in a situation like hers and having something of that magnitude dumped in your lap with no warning, I just didn't have any real answers for her. But the desperation in her voice and hopeful look in her eyes mandated that I say something so I went with my default position. "My grandfather told me that when in doubt you should always go with your first instinct." I answered her.

Satisfied with my answer she looked at me and asked, "I'm sorry for the extra burden I'm placing on you but could you please…"

Fortunately, it was rather cold this morning and there were only a few other cars in the parking lot. Once inside World of Elegance had me move to the highest point then she re-manifested and began to soar high up over the center of the crater. At first she flew in a grid pattern high above the ground so there was little chance of anyone spotting her. After that she began flying in a series of diminishing radius circles as if she was homing in on something seeming to have finally found it somewhere high in the sky, next thing I knew she was doing bombing runs on the various features of the landscape in full view of everybody, which had me in a panic until I realized that she was timing her dives to correspond with when no one was looking her way.

After a series of heart stopping high speed runs over the bottom of the crater where I fully expected her to smash into the rocks, she finally did a low pass over me, giving me the thumbs up before heading back to the parking lot. Relieved I headed back out to the van to find a fully dressed World of Elegance scarffing the last of my breakfast patiently waiting for me.

"What was with all the aerial acrobatics?" I asked her once we were back on the highway.

"Direct inductive coupling." She answered with no hesitation.

"So you were trying to absorb some of the residual power here by moving through a static field at high speed?"

"Exactly," she smiled at me, "my wings also serve as an organic inductor allowing me to absorb the energy from the environment. Same thing I did when I crashed to earth."

"Were you able to buy Urd some more time?" I asked her.

"I don't know for certain, but I can feel her pull more strongly now. That in and of itself makes me happy we decided to stop, so thank you."

"You're welcome," I told her sincerely.

The rest of the drive was made in relative silence with World of Elegance just staring out the window, an air of quite determination surrounding her. By the time we approached Albuquerque the sun was getting low in the sky and the road conditions began to deteriorate so we decided to stop for the night, promising ourselves we would get an early start the next morning.

000

Carmel Ca. is your typical coastal tourist trap town, complete with over priced shops and even more over priced realty. My ex-home had been several streets over from the main drag. The main street itself terminated in a small cul-de-sac sans parking lot that allowed access to the beach. Almost dead center of the parking lot and about 20 yards down from the high water line stood a small cypress tree that has probably been the subject of millions of photographs taken by tourist from all over the world. If you walk out on the beach and turn right opposite the direction of most of the tourist, then head uphill away from the ocean you will find several sand dunes that provide you with a small amount of seclusion as well as a spectacular view of the landscape.

I don't know why but for whatever reason that was where my dreams took me tonight. I had just settled into a really deep rim sleep when my nocturnal reverie was interrupted by a female voice behind me saying, "You know I've always dreamed of living in a home by the sea."

"Sea side homes aren't all they're cracked up to be." I responded to the alien voice. "No matter what time of year they're always cold and damp in the morning, the salt air from the sea corrodes the pipes and any steel fixtures. They are perpetually humid, you have to paint the outside at least every other year, the cost per square foot is outrageous and the taxes obscene."

"Still, if there was a way you would take it all back wouldn't you?" The owner of the voice asked as she finally walked into my field of view.

Gorgeous would be an understatement, she stood over six feet tall, her hair was Platinum and fell past her waist, her body was soft and supple, her bust large and so perfect that they seemed to defy gravity, her perfect skin a seductive shade of bronze.

Obviously naked, under her otherwise very revealing dress she was able to hide the important parts of her body while still allowing her to pose seductively for me.

"Hello Mr. Kendal." The gorgeous vision purred, "My name is Hild and I've been reviewing your case." She said while turning towards me her dress flowing in the breeze, never quite exposing those more important parts of her anatomy.

"What about my case?" I asked her.

"Your divorce settlement was anything but equitable, just scanning the files it's obvious that you've been treated most unfairly."

"You're preaching to the choir," I answered her, "but I'm flat broke so there's nothing I can do about it."

"Well…" she began, facing me, "If you're willing to make a deal I might be able to help."

"What kind of deal?"

"It's a sort of an I scratch your back and you scratch mine kind of deal." She said seductively.

"Okay and what do you want from me."

"You are currently in possession of a very valuable commodity, one very hard to come by in my neck of the woods. If you are willing to make a deal then I'm sure I can make it worth your while."

"Just exactly what are you offering?"

"God you are dense," Hild snorted, "I'll spell it out for you then. I'll help you get your old life back, your company, and your house, everything including your wife crawling on her hands and knees begging for your forgiveness if you allow me to take possession of that Angel currently living in your soul. There is one caveat though; you must allow me to take possession of the Angel immediately while we go through the process of recovering your life."

"Doesn't World of Elegance get a say in any of this?"

"Angel's are just chattel, obedient to those powerful enough to bend them to their will." Hild scoffed.

"Nonetheless it still seems pretty cowardly to me, throwing her out in the cold all alone not even having the balls to look her in the eye while I'm doing so." I answered Hild, "Somehow I really can't see me doing to World of Elegance the same thing that was done to me. I just don't think I can do that to her for no reason."

"Well then," she said, allowing her dress to slip down a little exposing more of her ample cleavage, "I'll sweeten the deal for you."

"How so?"

"Well… once she leaves, and she will leave you sooner of later, you will feel an overwhelming sense of emptiness… I'll…help you fill this void, I'll… even share my body with yours… as often as you wish." She spoke haltingly.

"Let me get this straight, you are going to help me get back everything my ex wife took from me while humiliating her in the process and satisfy my carnal desires whenever I ask?"

"Even better than that," she purred, "I'll show you a world of pleasure that you never knew existed. All you have to do is say yes to my offer."

"Tell me, would you even be making this offer if it weren't for World of Elegance already being there?"

"Good fortune attracts more good fortune. It was Elegance's good fortune that you saved her from freezing to death in the snow. Now it's time for… me to repay that debt by granting you your own 'good fortune.'"

"At the expense of Elegance's misfortune that is." I said.

"World of Elegance is an Angel who has become separated from her host. Your kindness to her so far has benefitted all of us immeasurably but now it is time for you to step aside and let her make it on her own. If you do this for us then I promise," Hild spoke as she sidled up next to me, "I will make it worth your while."

"Well… that certainly is a powerful inducement," I answered her sincerely, while trying not to become aroused by her close proximity, "but… no. I'm keeping my word to Elegance."

"You might think of yourself as being selfish if you accept my offer," Hild continued to press on, "but think of the others, the people who worked shoulder to shoulder with you. All of them shared your dream, don't they deserve better than being cast aside. I'm offering you a chance to do right by them, to start anew. Isn't that more important than the fate of one individual."

Hild had a good argument I had to admit, but it had one glaring flaw. She didn't care about me; it was World of Elegance she was trying to get at. I was just the tool she meant to use in order to get to her and for some reason that just pissed me off! Besides, how could I question the wisdom of God's treatment of her and then turn around and do essentially the same thing to her the next evening.

"No means no." I told Hild. "I will keep my word to World of Elegance."

"It's your loss then! But mark my words, if Urd is harmed by your actions then I will make you suffer like no mortal has ever suffered before." Hild spoke angrily before disappearing in a flash of light so bright it woke me up.

Upon waking I discovered that instead of being in my soul World of Elegance was laying next to me wide awake, the furious look on her face enough to turn a man to stone had the lights not been off.

Now personally I would have thought that she would have considered my dreamscape off limits but she apparently thought otherwise. Busted, I did what all men do when faced with incontrovertible evidence of their infidelity. I tried bluffing.

"What's up?" I asked innocently.

"Oh, don't you even think of going there!" She seethed, "There is not a single thought in your head that I'm not privy too."

"That doesn't seem like a very fair relationship to me. You get to read my mind, but I have to guess what's going on with you."

"Don't change the subject!" She screamed. "I already know what you did."

"If that's the case why are you still here?"

"I wasn't about ready to give the bitch the satisfaction. And I really, really wanted to see that dumb ass expression that you have on your face right now when I confronted you."

Epiphanies, you got to love them. Especially when they happen quickly enough for you to take advantage of your new insight. My latest epiphany told me that World of Elegance was only privy to what was transpiring in my mental realm when resident in my soul. Sometime during my mental deliberations with Hild she had exited my dreamscape and was not aware of the fact that Hild had been unsuccessful in her attempt to buy her off me.

"Elegance, I told her no and sent her packing."

"What…" World of Elegance looked at me shocked, placing her hand on my heart to verify that my soul was indeed empty before she continued. "You said no! No, to getting your life back. No to having the CEO of Hel at your beck and call 24-7. My God, am I living inside a mental defective? What the hell is wrong with you!"

"I decided that I didn't really want my old life back that badly." I told her happily, "But in truth I was tempted, sorely tempted."

Epiphanies, not really worth much if they happen after the fact, "CEO of hell?" I asked her in awe, as her words finally worked their way past my internal processing delay.

"Not hell, Hel." Elegance corrected me, "Mother is the current ruler of all Demon kind."

"Mother! She is your mother!"

"Well technically Hild is Urd's mother, but yes she is."

"What would Urd's mother want with you? Aren't the two of you supposedly part of some greater whole?"

"It's complicated, but years ago before we became as one Urd turned her back on the world of Demon kind and embraced the world of Heaven. Mother, Hild, never lived that down and there has been friction between them ever since. Hild has already tried stealing me once, had you actually sold me to her I would have had no choice but to return with her to the Demon realm. Once there I can flat guarantee that she would have used me as leverage to force Urd to switch loyalties. However, for some reason I get the feeling that there is more happening here than meets the eye.

"How so?" I asked her.

"Don't get me wrong here, a roll in the hey with Hild is something to die for, and I don't mean that metaphorically, but she is the ruler of all Demon kind and she has an entire entourage just waiting in the wings looking to curry favor with her by doing just that. The fact that she offered herself and not someone else tells me that she needs to keep this on the QT. Face it, she really didn't have to make you an offer at all! In all honesty, she could have just sent her personal assassination squad to punch your ticket and take me by force.

To say that I found Elegance's explanation disconcerting was a bit of an understatement. While I still fully intended to keep my word I had been hoping that we could stay under the radar of whoever it was who had precipitated this incident in the first place. This I was just realizing was going to be a rather difficult thing to accomplish seeing as how I was now on a first name basis with the Mistress of darkness!"

"Elegance, could you please, please tell me just what the hell or Hel is going on!" I pleaded.

"Very well," she began, "Urd's mother, our mother, the lady who you were just conversing with in your dreams name is Hild and she is the current ruler of the Infernal Realm. She is the most potent demon in the known universe. Years ago for some unknown reason she and the Almighty one decided that it would be a good idea to have a child between them, Urd. When Urd got older, because she was the product of both light and darkness she was given a choice, join with the forces of Heaven or join the forces of darkness. Now Urd coveted a white winged Angel like her younger sister Belldandy possessed and chose the light that she might have one too. But she was deceiving herself, for even though she was given an Angel's egg from the same tree as her sister it took the form of her soul and I am that result.

"Not white, not dark," she continued, her eyes tearing up as she did so, "not even a blend. Just this horrible discolored monstrosity you see before you!

"I don't see you that way and I don't think others like me would see you that way either." I told her soothingly.

"That's because you're an idiot!" she told me without humor, "When Urd saw me for the first time all she could see was a freak, one so horrifying that she ordered me back inside her soul and to never show myself again!"

"I'm serious," I told her, "While I'd be lying if I told you I didn't find your appearance odd I still think you are quite beautiful."

"You're sweet," she told me sadly, "but false nobility from a true Knight such as yourself is unbecoming. I'll tell you what, next time Hild comes calling go ahead and sell me to her. You deserve better than this." She finished with a sweeping motion of her hands indicating herself.

Dumbfounded and at a complete loss for words I decided to call it a night and took her hands in mine and I kissed her on the forehead. "Let's get some rest," I told her, "things always look better in the morning."

With that said I lay back down on the bed and waited for her to put me under so she could reenter my soul. As she spooned up against me her hands started to play about my body in places where they shouldn't have been. When I turned on my back to caution her she jumped up and sat down on my chest pinning me to the bed.

Now at best she weighs maybe 125 pounds, however, as I discovered, wings are a tremendous advantage when it comes to wrestling matches of this sort. Even so, I probably could have stopped her had my heart really been in it. But the mischievous grin that had replaced the grim expression on her face earlier told me that I was much better off just letting her have her way. Or at least that's how I justified it to myself.

Nevertheless I did manage to ask, "Do they even do things like this in Heaven?"

World of Elegance sat up straight her arms akimbo, looking me directly in the eyes as I admired her naked form she asked. "Is this not the body of a woman?"

"It is." I answered her back.

"And don't men and women who care for each other engage in such behavior?"

"Sometimes," I grudgingly admitted, "on occasion."

Leaning over until her lips were brushing mine she whispered softly, "Isn't it time for you to shut up?"

I did.

Not much more of what transpired that night needs to be written in this journal, suffice it to say that for the first time in years I finally found peace and World of Elegance found her God… several times.

It was as we still lay intertwined after we were finished, I felt a gentle warmth in my heart that slowly expanded until it filled my whole being. As the feeling expanded inside me I felt World of Elegance become insubstantial in my arms finally fading away into nothingness.

"And that," I heard her speak in my mind, "is how you open your soul to another."

It wasn't until the next morning when I noticed the pinkish color of the shower water running from my body that I realized just how wonderful a gift I had been given.


	5. Chapter 5

Ah! Lost Angel chapter 5:

Damascus steel.

As you can well imagine my thoughts were in turmoil as the significance of the blood running off of me began to sink in. While I was pondering how to broach the subject to World of Elegance I heard her voice in my mind as she said, "Kendal, my love, if you don't mind could you hold off checking out until I take another shower."

"I don't mind but why?" I asked as if I didn't really know.

"Um uh, last night was uh wonderful and all that," she said, as I felt her presence shift from my soul to the other side of the closed bathroom door, "but uh, you know it was also a little…messy." She stammered.

Panic, was the best way to describe my mental state at that moment, where I come from virgins had been extinct for about the last 150 years, as a result I hadn't been worried all that much regarding Elegance's… physiology. Suddenly fearful I reversed direction and was reaching towards the bathroom door when the warning tone in her voice caused my hand to stop short, "Kendal, did I ever bother to mention to you that my domain is lightning?"

"Uh no, I don't think so, why do you ask?"

"Just some food for thought should your hand get any closer to that knob." She warned.

"Why are you so shy all of a sudden?" I asked curiously, "It's not like I haven't already seen you naked."

"That was then, this is now." She laughed nervously.

"I wasn't trying to intrude; I'm just a little…concerned."

"I'm okay; if that's what's your asking, so there is nothing for you to worry about. I'm just afraid that I might smell a little rank next time I step out."

"When you manifest your physical body again you mean?"

"Of course, it's not like I can pretty myself up when my consciousness is in your soul. So, I need to take care of those things before I put myself away."

"Put yourself away where?"

"For lack of a better explanation I sort of superimpose myself over you."

"Okay I'll bite," I told her, "how do you superimpose yourself on me?"

"Oh god, you just had to ask that didn't you?" She sighed, "You ever hear of superstring theory?"

"No."

"Good, then you don't have to unlearn anything. However, superstring theory tries to fit all the observable parts and fundamental forces of the universe into a one-size-fits-all equation. Now, depending on which explanation you subscribe to the universe is composed of anywhere between 10 and 26 dimensions. -The correct answer to that question is 42 by the way. How Lewis figured it out we might not ever know-. Anyway, my physical body is superimposed over yours using those spare dimensions that you don't occupy. What this translates to in terms of practical application is that wherever you go I go, body and soul. That's how I've managed to remain with you up till now and why it was so important that I get your approval to do so."

"Let me guess, had I accepted you mothers offer that connection or whatever we have would have been dissolved last night wouldn't it?"

"Exactly, I would have wound up stranded here friendless and alone, nowhere to go. There isn't a compatible soul within a hundred miles of here."

"I'm curious though, why didn't 'you know who' send her goon squad and take you by force?"

"Logistics," Elegance answered my in a matter of fact tone, "you can punch into another's dream world from anywhere inside their domain. Direct action requires that you know the precise geographic location of your target. We have been on the move since I fell to earth and that means neither Heaven nor Hel know exactly where I'm located."

"Should I expect more such visits from your mother?"

"It depends on how Hild assessed you last night, if she thinks you're weak willed then maybe. If she fails a second time, however, I tend to expect that the next action will be more… direct, which works in our favor somewhat."

"How does being in the crosshairs of Hel's wrath translate to favorable?" I asked her in a panic.

"As I told you, logistics, first they have to acquire their target, then they have to recruit a wet team from the available local talent and then establish an unshakeable cover story to keep Heaven from asking questions, that's why it's so much easier for Hild to just buy what she needs."

"But now that I've turned her down the latter possibility is just about guaranteed. Hild knows that by now you would have clued me in on her little scam." I told her.

"Not true," World of Elegance corrected me, "Hild has no idea what transpired after she left in a huff last night. So she might just try again out of pride."

"What makes you think so?"

"Well for one thing she is the ruler of all Demon kind! For her to resort to crude violence to get what she wants is the same as admitting defeat. You turning her down last night really injured her pride. She might just up the ante."

"But it all for show isn't it? I mean there is no way she can follow through on her promise is there?"

"Kendal, my rather naive knight in shining armor, Hild does not make deals she doesn't keep! You turned down everything she had to offer in favor of me, you have no idea how happy that makes me feel. I hope someday I can fully repay you."

"Uh, Elegance," I began hesitantly, "I really don't know how to ask this next question without sounding uh, you know…"

"Then let me ask it for you then," World of Elegance said coming to my rescue, "You want to know if that was what last night was all about?"

I could really only stand there and feel my face grow red by her directness as I nodded my head imperceptibly.

"The brutally honest answer to that question is yes it was." World of Elegance said flatly, popping my bubble, "But not for the reasons you might think."

"Why did you do it then?" I asked her in dismay.

"It's called 'The Law of the Conservation of Happiness,' when you turned Hild down you essentially gave up everything you had in order to protect me and by extension Urd. This in turn created an imbalance between your Good Fortune and Misfortune and that made it incumbent on me, acting as proxy for Urd, to redress that imbalance by giving to you all that I had to offer in exchange."

"Elegance, you didn't have too… I mean I never expected for you too…"

"Let me put it to you another way lover." She explained, "Through no fault of your own I was placed in the position of either becoming a prisoner of the Demon realm, or spending a night of wild unbridled passion with a handsome young stud. Tell me, if our roles had been reversed what would you have done?"

Epiphany number three; when things are going this good for you, don't open your mouth and ruin it.

000

It is a five hour drive from Albuquerque to Amarillo. As a result of our combined mental confusion we both decided it was better to remain de-merged from the others soul until we came to grips with the reality of our new relationship. So World of Elegance took up occupancy in the passenger's seat of my old van as we continued our way east. Occasionally pressing her body close to mine as if to reassure me that she was still there.

Leaving Albuquerque, we began to notice the signs along the roadway advertising for a free 72oz steak at the Big Texan restaurant, increasing in frequency the closer we got to Amarillo. As we drove through town World of Elegance pointed to the by now familiar sign of the big obnoxious cowboy and looking at me with her customary mischievous grin, pointed at the marquee and said, "You know, thanks to last night's… activities, I'm still considerably power negative, which means with me along for the ride I can guarantee that you can eat the whole thing."

"Good idea, but I have an even better one." I answered her with a big smile as I pointed the old van towards the appropriate exit.

Pulling into the parking lot World of Elegance began to disrobe in preparation to re-merge with my soul before I stopped her. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Remember our conversation about efficiencies when converting from one state to another?"

"Yes, and I understand what you're getting at but aren't you forgetting about these?" She asked while pointing to her wings.

"In any other part of the country those could be an issue but this is Texas, I doubt anyone will notice us." I told her confidently.

I was wrong of course, we were noticed, but not so much because of her wings but more so because of my wager with the bartender that she could finish the whole meal in less than twenty minutes.

The Big Texan was started in 1960 by a man named Robert J. Lee. Originally situated along Route 66 it was later relocated along I 40 after traffic along the original mother road started to dry up. If you wander inside you will find a host of oddities befitting the Large-as-Texas motif.

The free 72 oz Steak that caught Elegance's attention was an advertising gimmick that Bob came up with in the early sixties after watching a ravenous cowhand from one of the local ranches down 4 and ½ pounds of red meat before he declared himself full. Since that time, according to the lore posted on the restaurant walls, over 50,000 people have taken the challenge with only about 8,800 succeeding.

The bartender was no fool, of course, he knew it was a sucker bet but he just couldn't figure my angle which made him curious as to what we were up to.

"Make it 15 and you have a bet." He countered, rising to the challenge.

Looking over at World of Elegance who had become the center of attention I gave her a questioning look.

Looking back at me with her customary mischievous grin that told me she was up to something she said for me to counter his offer with, "Give us two for one odds and she will beat the best time you have on record."

Sucker bet or not, the poor bartender was hooked, "You're on!" he shouted without hesitation.

The next thing I knew chaos erupted in the dining room, as patrons and staff quickly escorted her over to a central table sitting up on a small stage in the center of the room. I took as many bets as I thought I could safely cover before having to beg off for fear of being left destitute should World of Elegance not be up to the task. This led to the patrons and staff establishing betting pools amongst themselves as they all sought to profit in someway from the action.

It was World of Elegance who brought order to the chaos by stomping her foot and pantomiming that she was hungry and wasn't going to delay her meal any longer just to satisfy their greed.

Finally the crowd calmed down enough for the waiters to bring her meal and the clock was started. What happened next was frightening in its savagery and to this day I still can't find the words to accurately describe it, suffice it to say 4 minutes, 43 seconds is the new unofficial record for the Texas King Challenge.

The reason it remains unofficial is because even though the event was supposed to be recorded, all the cameras focused on her table stopped working for some unexplained reason. But the people there saw it with their own eyes and paid their wagers without argument. Even though I wasn't part of them I also got cut in for ten percent of the winning pools.

After collecting our winnings I topped off the old van and we pressed on east towards Groom, home of the largest cross in the northern hemisphere. Once back on the road World of Elegance reclined her seat all the way back and while rubbing her tummy let out an enormous belch, the only physical noise she had made since we had met. The uncharacteristically loud sound catching us by surprise resulting in spontaneous laughter from both of us.

Looking at me with a blush on her face she spoke to me in my mind saying, "At last I'm finally full."

As we got nearer to Groom, World of Elegance began to become more alert focusing her attention on the giant cross looming in the distance. By now I knew better than to ask so we exited and pulled directly into the parking lot. Exiting the van she didn't even try to hide her wings as we walked silently hand in hand past the Stations of the Cross. There were many others walking the same path we were but if they even noticed my beautiful companion's wings they never said a word. Who knows, maybe heavenly visitors are not all that uncommon an occurrence at sites of religious significance. Stopping at the twelfth station, (Jesus dying on the cross atop mount Calvary.), we ran around back and lay down together on the backside away from curious eyes.

Watching the traffic on the freeway as the cars zoomed by, totally oblivious to the heavenly visitor watching them, I could almost feel the psychic energies swirling around her.

"It's not the place or the symbol, it's the people." She explained, "A cross is really nothing more than two boards nailed together. It's the feelings that people project onto it that give it power and that power will remain here, imbedded in the landscape even long after that symbol ceases to be."

After about twenty minutes of just lying together World of Elegance finally broke my mental reverie with the single three word phrase. "Now I'm ready."

I didn't bother to ask what she meant because I already knew. She had been injured, betrayed and left for dead but still she prevailed. Not only that, her foes had failed to capitalize on their advantage and had inadvertently given her the time she needed to restore her strength and re-gain her focus. Urd's soul was still her first priority but after that… well if I was that Lind chick I'd be heading for the high ground in a hurry."

As for me, while I can't pin point the exact moment when it happened I knew without question that sometime during our brief relationship I had fallen hopelessly in love with the lost Angel. My path was now as clear to me as ski tracks in the snow and for good or ill I intended to stay with her through to the end of it. Standing up I helped her to her feet before I kissed World of Elegance passionately.

As I felt her physical body melt into mine I answered her. "So am I." I said with a conviction I had never known before.

Getting back on the road we weren't on the highway more than an hour before I heard Elegance's panicked voice in my head telling me to stop the van. Pulling over to the side of the road World of Elegance had me get out of the van and turn around in a complete circle as she surveyed the landscape using my eyes.

"What is that building over there?" She asked while mentally pointing to a small nondescript warehouse with the familiar XXX logo on the side.

"Adult bookstore," I answered her, "It's a place where they show…"

"My mistress likes to dabble in the love domain," World of Elegance told me, "So I know what an adult bookstore is and what really goes on in there. What I want to know is; is there anything different about that one than the dozen or so we have already passed?"

"Not that I can see from the outside, why?"

There is something different about that one, its aura is different, more malicious and there is a scent of Urd coming from that direction."

"You mean Urd is in that store?"

"No, but there is someone or something that direction that has come in contact with her recently."

Continuing on we exited the freeway once again, World of Elegance remaining in my soul, clandestinely scanning the area as I played the part of an out-of-state customer. As I got out of my old van World of Elegance noticed that I was the subject of much scrutiny as I walked towards the entrance.

"Kendal," I heard World of Elegance speak in my mind, "there is danger for you here. This is a false front. Whatever they are doing here it isn't legal or they wouldn't be so cautious."

"Do you want me to abort?" I asked her while still walking towards the door.

"I won't ask that you put yourself in danger, but Urd's time is getting short."

"I'll continue then," I told her as I reached the entrance.

"Oh thank you so very much."

"My pleasure," I answered.

"STOP!" She screamed in my mind, causing my hand to hesitate just inches from the door. "If I feel any danger I want you to let your body go limp, don't ask questions, just do it!"

"Okay," I acknowledged as I entered the dimly lit store.

000

Back when I traveled about the country hawking my companies goods I quickly became aware of certain predispositions that were prevalent in certain areas. Texas is a prime example, now Texas is an interesting state, the only state in the union that is a state by treaty and not annexation; it was also its own independent nation for 9 years. As a result of their unique history Texans, native born Texans that is, are fiercely proud individualists. If you've ever lived in Texas you know what I'm talking about.

Entering the front of the bookstore it was plainly obvious that no individualists were to be found in this shady group, instead it was more like a birds of a feather thing. A blind man could have seen that neither the patrons nor the proprietor were natives even though they all were trying their best to appear so. This immediately put both World of Elegance and me on edge. Honest people, even those in the dubious business of flesh pedaling don't go to this much trouble to hide their true nature. There was something plainly wrong with whatever was transpiring on the premises. Were it not for the importance of our quest this would have been one place I would never have even thought about venturing into.

Looking about the store as I slowly walked towards the front counter I observed that there were two people, one apparently a trucker, the other attached to the store somehow making believe that they were haggling over the prices of the dust covered sex toys hanging on the wall.

"Over there," World of Elegance said, "One of those two have been in close proximity to Urd in the last few hours."

Reaching the counter I was greeted by a slimy little worm with shifty eyes wearing a black cowboy hat and vest. The two articles of clothing as out of place as teats on a bull. Were it not for the aura of danger emitting from the room it would have been laughable.

"May I help you sir?" came the greasy sounding voice of the clerk from the other side of the counter."

"I hope so," I answer him with what I hoped was the appropriate tone of voice. "I'm looking for some strange, not that fake off the shelf stuff that they serve up in California. You know, the real stuff."

"You looking for some young stuff?" He asked bluntly.

"No, no nothing like that," I reassured him, "I'm too fond of my freedom to risk the penalty."

"Well then," the wormy clerk continued, "how about some amateur then."

"Better idea I guess, but most of that involves egotistical guys and ugly unenthused bitches. I'm looking for something different."

"Spy cam, maybe." The clerk continued.

"Well that at least sounds interesting." I answered him hoping I sounded non-committal enough.

"Wrong answer!" The clerk said.

Simultaneously World of Elegance shouted, "Hostile intent! Go limp!"

Locking my legs to keep myself from falling I let my upper torso go limp as I felt my arms move of their own volition as World of Elegance began fighting off my would be attackers.

"Unlock your legs!"She screamed, "You can't dodge if you can't run."

Doing as I was told I felt my body start to fall before World of Elegance caught it and began dancing me around the store like some kind of lethal marionette. I really had no idea what was going on because every time I tried focusing my eyes on something the action had already moved on to another principal. Kind of like watching a newscast where the voice over is two steps ahead of the image on the screen.

"Will you please close your eyes!" World of Elegance screamed, "Your mental processing is too slow and it's distracting me."

I did as I was told; feeling as if I were a prisoner in my own body, as my arms and legs lashed out in all directions, the shock of each blow World of Elegance landed my only clue to how the contest was proceeding.

Fortunately for the other side World of Elegance wasn't interested in extracting retribution, only in protecting me, so all she did was land a few disabling blows on my attackers, causing the fight to be over almost before it began. Once again allowed the use of my eyes I looked around at the destruction that had been a store front seconds earlier. As I did World of Elegance extended her wings from my back and quickly scanned the unconscious bodies of the manager and his patrons. Spying something World of Elegance guided me over to a cell phone in the trucker's pocket. Quickly scrolling through his picture files I found the one of Urd that had drawn Elegance's attention. Using Elegance's enhanced strength I grabbed the unfortunate by his collar with one hand and slapped him awake with the other. Lifting the two hundred pound trucker up with one arm I held the damming picture in front of his face as World of Elegance using my voice asked. "Where is she!"

"Where is who?" The trucker tried to bluff.

Dark energy coursed through my arm and into his body causing both of us to spasm in pain.

"Don't make me repeat the question." World of Elegance threatened him softly.

"They call her the Zombie Stripper," he babbled in fear, "I took that last night at the Skull and Rainbow room."

"Where can I find her!"

"Printers…Printers Alley… in Nashville, Nashville Tennessee.

Exiting the store we were about halfway to the van when World of Elegance alerted me to something strange about the Semi truck parked around back of the building. Pressing my ear to the side of the trailer I heard muffled voices coming from within.

"They are all women," World of Elegance told me, "Different nationalities and a few underage girls."

"That trucker is a god dam human trafficker," I told her, "It's no coincidence that Urd's face is on his camera, and I'll bet you anything that he was negotiating a price for her with those creeps just now."

Next thing I knew World of Elegance had left my soul and was back in the destroyed bookstore, channeling more dark energy into the terrified trucker.

Running back into the store I saw World of Elegance had grabbed the Trucker by his throat and had flown him to the top of the building, her wings generating a furious hurricane in the confines of the small store front, while dark lightning coursed through his body.

"In a few minutes the police are going to come," I heard myself say, as World of Elegance threatened him using my voice even as her eyes turned red with fury, "When they do you are going to tell them everything, no lawyers, no deals. If you don't, if you leave out even the slightest detail, then she will seek you out and kill you, very, very slowly. Do you understand me?"

The terrified trucker nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Good." World of Elegance told him, releasing the poor driver letting his body fall 10 feet to the floor, his left leg snapping like a twig as she did so. Softly alighting next to his body World of Elegance took his head and painfully twisted his neck so he could see his reflection in the two way mirror at the back of the store. "She will be watching you, count on it."

With that World of Elegance jumped back into my soul, disappearing from the trucker's sight as she did so. "Call the police and let's get going," she told me briskly, "before I really lose my temper."

"Are you sure you don't want to wait around and make sure he does as you told him?"

"Not to worry, I put an image lock on his brain just now, from now on whenever he sees his own reflection out of the corner of his eye he'll catch a glimpse of me…stareing back at him."

Sure enough World of Elegance was right; the trucker did exactly as he was told, even insisting on the presence of a chaplain to bear witness.

I waited around in the parking lot just long enough to hear the sounds of the approaching sirens before continuing our eastward trek. Now under normal circumstances it is about a 4 hour drive from Amarillo to Oklahoma City but with all the delays ensuing from our stops at the Big Texan restaurant, the Groom cross and our adventure in the Adult bookstore we weren't making anywhere near that good a time. As a result the sun was long down and I was falling asleep at the wheel by the time we were on the outskirts of the city. Pulling over at the first rest stop I could find before I fell asleep and drove off the side of the road, I popped the top of the old van, unrolled the bed and tried to grab a little shut eye. Looking up at the stars as I tried to go to sleep my view was slowly obscured by World of Elegance's hopeful eyes as she manifested atop my naked body pinning me to the floor boards, her face a few scant inches from mine.

"I was thinking," she spoke in my head as her hands played over my body, "maybe I could make another installment on that debt I owe?"

"You wouldn't be manipulating this situation to your advantage would you?"

"Not at all," she lied with a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin.

"Who am I to complain?" I answered her as I hugged her tightly.

Afterwards I found myself idly tracing the designs on her skin as we just lay together underneath the covers stareing at the stars when a possible answer to her conundrum popped into my head. "It's called Damascus steel." I told her.

"What?" she asked me in surprise.

Taking her hands I showed her the intricate pattern on her skin. "Damascus steel, what I see here looks almost like the pattern you find in Damascus steel."

"I see," she said icily as she pulled her hands away self consciously.

"No you don't," I corrected her, taking her hands once again in my own, "sadly the making of Damascus steel has been lost to antiquity, but at one time it was the strongest material known to man, it was said to be able to hold an edge so sharp it could cut the barrel off of a rifle. If I was going to speculate on this beauty that is uniquely yours, I would say that you are the Damascus steel of all angels, stronger in ways like no other."

Looking critically at the patterns that graced her skin as if for the first time she spoke almost to herself, "It's possible, Urd is potentially the strongest of all goddesses, conceivably stronger than the Almighty One himself."

"Urd lusted after a white winged angel," I opined, "when what she needed was a Damascus steel angel, what she needed was you."

"Your theory does make a certain type of sense," World of Elegance acknowledged, "Urd's younger sister, Belldandy, lost control of her angel when she was younger and three guardians died as a result. For all the snide remarks and all the down the nose looks I get in heaven I would much rather endure that, than have the memory of the lives lost as the result of one rash act gnawing at my soul for the remainder of my days. Maybe I really am the right person in the right place at the right time after all."

"Now don't you go getting a big head," I cautioned her, "remember what happened to Lucifer when he got too uppity."

"Wrong heaven, but I get the point. Besides I've got more important things in my mind right now."

"Such as?"

"Such as, do we have time for me to make another interest payment, or has the 'Damascus steel' of angels worn your ass out?"


	6. Chapter 6

Ah! Lost Angel ch6:

Koshian.

Arising early the next morning we got back on the road and in no time we were in Oklahoma City. Driving through downtown I spotted a small sign with the image of an airplane on it pointing towards Interstate 35. Upon seeing this I held a silent deliberation with myself before arriving at what should have been the obvious conclusion and quickly changed lanes at the last moment.

"Where are we going?" World of Elegance asked me in alarm.

"Airport," I shuddered.

"Why the airport?"

"This is the weekend," I told her flatly, "If your host was at the Skull and Rainbow yesterday then she will probably be there tonight. If we're lucky maybe we can catch a shuttle flight or something. If so, we might be able to get there this evening while the show is still going on."

"I thought you said we were broke," World of Elegance protested, "How are you planning to pay for the ticket."

"With the money I won off the bartender after you scarfed that 72 ounce steak." I told her with satisfaction.

"Sounds like we got a perfect plan then." World of Elegance acknowledged warmly.

It would've been too, were it not for one minor detail I forgot to mention to her. I am deathly afraid of flying!

000

Pteromerhanophobia is defined as an unreasonable fear of flying. There is nothing unreasonable about my fear however. While I can't honestly say that every flight I've ever been on has had something go wrong, every traumatic event in my life has an airplane associated with it in some fashion or another.

Example, the first flight I ever took was as an unaccompanied minor to California, where I discovered that my parents were divorced. Up until then I was told by my father that the reason mommy wasn't home was because she was staying with a friend. As it turns out she was sleeping with him too.

That single incident didn't really scar me that much and for the next two years I actually enjoyed flying alone as I was shuttled between mom and dad's house as the two fought over who would get custody. That stopped suddenly when during year three I arrived at mom's only to discover that I had a little sister on the way. Year four never happened because; as I was told as gently by my father as possible, that my mom and her new husband needed time to themselves to concentrate on their new family. Turns out I never did meet my new sister.

Then there was the time I flew to that Olympic skiing competition only to have my bindings fail, or the time I flew out to attend my grandfather's funeral, followed shortly by my grandmother's and most recently the death of my father.

But perhaps the most traumatic event I associate with airplanes is I met my future ex-wife at an airport. Now here I was fixing to get on another plane so I could take the woman I had just fallen in love with back to her original host, who will likely reassert her claim and take World of Elegance from my side.

God, I really, really, hate flying.

Arriving at the airport I used just about all of our winnings and booked a standby fare on the next flight to Nashville International. It was still several hours until the next flight but as luck would have it the plane wasn't even close to full so I was allowed to board with the first, actually the only group, and found myself a seat all the way at the back of the aircraft next to the restroom that I knew I was going to visit at least once during the flight.

Once in the air the panic I feared slowly began to manifest. "Are you okay," the concerned voice of World of Elegance rang in my head.

"Fine," I lied back to her, "why do you ask?"

"Because your body is in fight or flight mode, which is one hell of a waste of energy if you stop to think about it."

"Sorry," I answered her, "I guess I should have mentioned I have this thing about airplanes."

"If you knew this was going to happen then why did you get onboard this infernal machine?" She asked me sternly.

"Obviously, because it is the quickest way to get from where we were at to where we need to be." I answered her.

"You did this to yourself for Urd? Someone you don't even know!"

"No, I did it because it needed to be done." I told her. "My personal feelings don't enter into the equation."

"Kendal my dear, you have no idea how happy you just made me." World of Elegance said, her voice starting to take on a panicked edge. "To be willing to sacrifice yourself in such a manner to help another. That said if you don't get a handle on yourself quickly you are going to…

"Squeeze me out of your soul." She finished, her panicked voice reverberating in my head even as she materialized in the vacant seat next to mine.

"What the hell are you hyperventilating for?" I asked her, laughing despite my discomfort, "You got wings at least."

"Probably something I should have mentioned as well," World of Elegance explained, while she fought to calm herself, "An Angel is supposed to be totally subservient to their host, in other words we give up our freewill and allow our actions to be dictated to us by another. What that means is we are essentially one in the same and your emotions and mine mirror each other. No big thing really, this is just part and parcel of what if means to be an Angel. However, you are not my true host, so in order for me to retain my sense of self I created a wall of sorts that keeps the essence of my soul from intermingling with yours. In practice it means that I should have been aware of your feelings but not influenced by them. The problem for me right now is that after what we shared last night I'm a lot…closer to you than I ever intended to be and that barrier has become… weakened. These strong feelings of fear you have are…overpowering."

"Sorry about that," I told her.

"Crap," she swore as she became aware of her environment, "It's freezing in this thing. Kendal could you be a dear and ask the stewardess behind you for a blanket before she totally freaks out?"

"Oh shit," I thought to myself, as I realized that there was no way for the flight attendant not to have noticed that the formerly empty seat next to mine was now occupied. Not only that, but Elegance's wings would be in full view from that vantage point. Looking behind us I did as World of Elegance told me and asked the ashen faced flight attendant, her hand frozen halfway to the phone, for a blanket for my companion. Judging from the look on the poor girl's face and the position she was sitting in it was blatantly obvious that my worst fears were confirmed and she had seen World of Elegance as she manifested in the seat next to mine.

Instead of answering me immediately the stewardess' hand remained transfixed in mid air as she engaged in her own mental fight or flight debate. So, in order to calm her fears somewhat I tried playing it cool by telling her nonchalantly. "Don't pay my friend here any mind. She's just deadheading to Nashville." Of course as soon as the syllable 'dead' left my lips the stewardess' face grew even paler.

"That was a rather poor choice of words." World of Elegance mentioned to me sarcastically.

"Whatever," I answered her.

The stewardess seeming to finally have processed my request redirected the movement of her arm to the cupboard above the phone and handed me a blanket.

Taking it from her I placed it about Elegance's shoulders using it to cover her exposed body and wings as best I could. For her part World of Elegance grasped my arm and snuggled in close to me dropping off into a light sleep.

Out of my sight the stewardess, no longer transfixed by my gaze, proceeded to place her preempted phone call, however, when she did so instead of hearing the captain's voice on the other end of the line it was World of Elegance who asked her. "Honestly, do you really want to panic all these people?"

"No, I guess not," I heard her answer Elegance's unspoken question.

It's hard to be afraid when you have your own personal Angel sleeping next to you. After about 20 minutes of just watching World of Elegance sleep with her body snuggled close to mine under the blanket I began to fear that some of the other passengers might become aware of her presence. Nudging her softly I whispered in her ear. "I think I've calmed down now, you can get back inside if you wish."

"I'd love too," she whispered back, "I'm butt naked and it's freezing in this thing, but that stewardess is keeping an eye on us like a hawk. If I up and disappear in front of her like I did to that truck driver I'm afraid she might suffer 'A significant emotional event.' If she does, she will most likely single you out as to the reason why. If that happens you might not be able to disentangle yourself from the local authorities before Urd's show is over."

"So what are you thinking then?" I asked her, "Get off the plane in your birthday suit with the rest of us, wings and all?"

"Don't be silly, she has to get up from her perch sometime after landing. I'll dive back inside then, in the meantime slide on over here and keep me warm."

Which is exactly what I did, snuggling next to her trying to enjoy what I knew to be our last few hours together. All too soon the flight ended and true to her word World of Elegance waited until the plane had landed and the stewardess got up to open the doors before jumping back into my soul.

As I got up to exit the plane I got the evil eye from the stewardess who, failing to find World of Elegance in the crowd was now doing a meticulous double count to insure that just as many people got off the aircraft as had gotten on.

Grabbing my duffle bag that held our clothes from the overhead storage I headed for the airport lockers where I hastily stowed our gear before grabbing a cab towards town. Meanwhile, the poor stewardess who had accidently seen World of Elegance manifest made a bee line towards the nearest chapel in desperate need of a priest.

Apparently, I was the only one on the flight not waiting for their luggage. As a result I was the first person at the cab stand. I was about to hail the first cab in line when suddenly another cab towards the end of the line pulled out and screeched to a halt in front of me. Looking inside I suddenly felt Elegance start as she recognized the driver.

"Ah! Another lost sojourning soul," the driver spoke as if he recognized me, "have you been traveling for very long this time my friend?"

"Do I know you sir?" I asked the elderly Japanese driver.

"I'm certain that I know you," he spoke kindly, "but it would seem that you don't know me, so please forgive me, for I see that I still haven't quite mastered my penchant for jumping to wrong conclusions."

"Are you still searching for that one special song… Koshian?" World of Elegance asked him with my voice.

"Ho ho, maybe not so wrong a conclusion after all?" He said.

"No it wasn't, and for me just more proof that he is." She said.

"God I wish I knew what you two are talking about." I asked Elegance in my mind.

"Shush," she answered me back.

"Pardon an old monks curiosity but what brings you half way around the world?"

"Just trying to reclaim what is rightfully mine. And you?"

"Well this is the home of country music after all," he answered her; "there may be clues to my quest scattered along this path."

"What are you two talking about?" I spoke out loud.

"I'll explain it too you later," World of Elegance answered me with my own voice, "Now quit interrupting."

I would have thought that from the drivers perspective the site of me having an argument with myself, (and apparently losing,), would have given him pause, instead he just sat there in the drivers seat and smiled as if he could actually see World of Elegance as she chastised me.

"I can tell that your traveling companion is at something of a loss. Can I perhaps invite you to come with me to the Buddhist Temple so that he might become better acclimated to his current situation and maybe even compare notes on how our respective quests are progressing?"

"Sadly no, our quest is a matter of some urgency and we must make haste towards its completion."

"I understand," Koshian answered, "still if I can be of assistance I'll be around. Now where to?"

"Printer's Alley," we both spoke in unison causing my voice to reverberate slightly.

As the cab pulled away from the airport World of Elegance explained to me that Koshian was the care taker of the Temple where Urd and her two sisters resided while on the mortal plane. Leaving the Temple in the care of the Norn's shortly after their arrival Koshian had been on a world wide quest to find the different songs of the world so that he might be able to one day sing his own song that would foster harmony from discord and Nashville, being the home of country music, would of course be one of his stops along the way. The reason he had raced over to pick us up and why he had treated us with such familiarity was due to his years of extensive training. Koshian was able to read auras, so while my face might not be familiar to him, my psychic aura was, Koshian having recognized World of Elegance's aura from a previous encounter years ago in Japan.

"Is this one of those 'convenient coincidences' that is too convenient to be a coincidence?" I asked her.

"Could be," she answered, "Could be."

Koshian dropped us off at the front of the alley and after warning us to steer clear of the local motor cycle gang he turned around and picked up some drunken revelers as we headed towards the entrance of the alley and the Skull and Rainbow room.

Entering the strip club I paid the obscenely large cover charge while studying the bouncers and the position of the fire escapes relative to the stage. Staying towards the back of the room I edged towards one of the fire exits that still allowed for an adequate view of the show. Studying the crowd I noticed that there were about ten reserved seats that had been roped off at center stage. Occupying those seats were members of the Tennessee Terrors outlaw motor cycle gang who had apparently paid extra for the privilege. Probably the ones that Koshian was trying to warn us about.

As I remembered from the days of my misspent youth the Skull and Rainbow Room had three shows a night and the warm-up acts of the first set should just now be coming to a close. I didn't really have much of a plan. All I wanted to do was get eyes on Elegance's host then move towards the back of the room in order to get World of Elegance close enough to Urd for her to return her soul. Beyond that I didn't care.

As I snuggled in next to the wall, the stage lights went down and the highlight of the evening, the 'Zombie Stripper' came up on stage being led by her manager who held a leash fasten to a dog collar cinched around her throat.

The differences between World of Elegance and her host was a study in contrasts, if you were to try to describe World of Elegance in a single word, approachable, would be a good description, Urd, Elegance's host, was exactly the opposite, a haughty type of beauty that discouraged the average Joe from ever getting close. Urd's hair was platinum blond, reaching down to the middle of her back, her skin tone was a light bronze like her mother's and could easily be mistaken for Hild's sister instead of daughter. Her body was not quite as full figured as her mother being possessed of a more athletic tone. It had to have given her slime ball of a manager one hell of a rush to have that type of total control over such a beauty.

"Oh shit!" Elegance exclaimed mentally pointing to Urd's manager. "I guess that answers that question."

"What question?" I asked.

"How Urd was able to remain animate after we were separated."

"I don't get it?"

"Here, let me show you." She told me as she superimposed her angel's vision onto that of mine. What I saw made absolutely no sense. There appeared to be all these cartoonish like eight tentacled octopus shaped creatures hanging from the roof directly over the stage. "The thing holding Urd's leash is Horace, he is a shape changing lust demon," Elegance explained, "all those things on the roof are just low level demons, he is using them to provide the necessary power to keep Urd from becoming comatose."

"You mean this whole place is invested with demons!"

"Don't worry about them, they don't have any freewill and won't attack if not provoked. The worry is with Horace, if he senses my presence we will be in serious trouble, try to keep a low profile and get ready to run if necessary. Don't worry about getting close to the stage, get close to the nearest fire exit and run as soon as I tell you!"

As everyone waited for the show to start I surreptitiously placed myself as close to the emergency door as I safely could. Turning my attention back towards the stage I noticed that the conversations and cat calls had faded out and an unearthly stillness had fallen on all the patrons. As I wondered as to the cause I suddenly noticed Urd, probably sensing Elegance's presence, had fixed her Zombie like eyes on me as I tried to hide in the shadows. This wouldn't have been so bad had not every other eye in the establishment been trying to see what had drawn her attention as well. Horace, probably trying to discover the cause of why Urd wasn't following his orders suddenly pinned me in the glare of a small hand held spotlight which was all the invitation needed for the entire patronage of the club to come after me with blood in their eyes.

"Horace is whipping them into a killing rage!" World of Elegance warned me in my mind. "Get out of here now!"

Sensing her urgency I pushed backwards against the crash bar and escaped into the alley, the drunken patrons of the club in hot pursuit. Their blood lust fueled by alcohol and the apparent ease of my escape.

I was hoping that my pursuers would lose interest after a few minutes but it seemed that they were determined to have their pound of flesh. This placed me in a dangerous situation as I was on their home turf and hadn't thought about the need for an exit strategy. Heading out the exit I quickly tried to lose myself in the crowds of revelers who wandered drunkenly from club to club. Once I was reasonably secure that there was no one following me I tried ducking down the main street and circling the block so I could access the alley from the other end. This was a bad idea I soon discovered because Urd's manager sensing the danger that I posed to his livelihood had dispatched the drunken bikers to discourage my return, promising them a free show in exchange for their service. The end result being as I rounded the corner at the other end of the alley my world suddenly exploded in pain as I was immediately set upon by six hairy bikers one of whom bashed me in the head from behind.

000

I always loved that view from the dunes in Carmel. I guess that's why World of Elegance brought me back there, so that she could make my last moments in this world… comforting. As I lay there in my dreamscape I could sense my head as it rested in her lap, blood spewing from my crushed skull. Looking up I could see her as well fading in and out as my consciousness came and went.

"You're dying, you know." I heard the voice of Hild echo in my head. "I bet you think that what you did was noble," Hild continued to scoff as she appeared in my dreamscape, "I wonder, did it ever occur to you two genius's that there was a reason for my actions?"

"Even if we had, what guarantee did we have that they were benign?" I answered her tiredly.

"They weren't benign, you idiot! But I would have been one step closer to rescuing my daughter. Now both halves of her soul are in jeopardy because of you! At least with me her Angel would have been safe."

"Well you know what they say… The best laid plans of mice and men…"

"Doesn't apply to me…" Hild finished.

"Here's the deal Kendal and it's a straight up trade. Sell the Angel to me now and I will grant you your life, otherwise I will let you die here and now and pick her up at my convenience.

Looking to World of Elegance I waited for her to answer Hild's question but she remained mute.

"That's just a sentinel," Hild told me, "a small piece of herself that she left behind to keep watch over your soul until you pass. This is a deal for you to make, moron."

"No," I sighed, "no not even for my life… Freedom… freedom is just too precious to put a price on. It's sad it took me so long to realize that little fact. World of Elegance is not for sale, not now and not ever."

"God, I hate you altruists! Always so high and mighty, but answer me this; what about Urd? Is she to be forever bereft of her higher half? Her angel will soon die if not re-united. What of me? Am I to lose my daughter all because of your high sounding morals!"

"That is up to you now." I told her.

"What do you mean by that?" Hild asked me pointedly.

"What I mean is; your daughter is currently keeping company with a demon called Horace at a place called the Skull and Rainbow Room, located in the middle of Printers Alley in Nashville Tennessee." I told her, "What you choose to do with that little tid bit of information is completely up to you, I've done all I can. Now will you please go away and let me die in peace?"

"SHIT!" Hild screamed at the top of her voice, "Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Finally calming herself Hild reached into her blouse and extracted a small cell phone and flipping it open without dialing she spoke into the receiver. "Garm…could you be a dear and drop by the waiting room… Yes, I'd like to do some horse trading if you would be so kind."

An instant later a dog like creature with the body of a man appeared next to Hild with a large manifest book in his hand. Looking at me in an offhand fashion before addressing Hild he asked. "Is he the one?"

"That's him, all right."

"I see," Garm growled, "what are you offering in exchange?"

"I was thinking him," Hild said as she pointed to her own manifest book which appeared out of nowhere.

Coughing in shock, Garn cleared his throat several times before finding his voice. "Lady Hild surely you jest, even if I didn't have a quota to meet there is no way I could make a trade that one sided!"

"I thought you might say that." Hild began her voice taking on a dangerous tone.

"Don't get me wrong Lady Hild, you know I would do anything in my power to make you happy but you are asking me to trade a prime 22kt soul against a what… 10kt? If its even worth that much, there is no way I can make a deal like that fly!"

"Did you remember to factor in the time value of money?" Hild asked Garm sweetly.

"What do you mean?" Garm asked her.

"Check the expiration dates and run the numbers again."

"Let's see," Garm said to himself, scratching his chin as he began moving the beads on an abacus that had materialized in his hand. "It's still an expensive trade no matter how you look at it, but to get a toxic asset like that off my books a couple centuries early… Cuts into my short term profits heavily, but long term… Yep, I'm definitely in the black."

Looking back at Hild he asked, "When can I take delivery?"

"Soonest," was Hild's one word reply.

With that the beach in Carmel with Hild, Garm, and World of Elegance's sentinel became insubstantial fading in and out to be replaced by the face of our cab driving monk.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Koshian said.

_If anyone is wondering how I'm able to rip these chapters out so quickly it's because what I am really doing is more like editing than writing. This story already exists in another form over at fiction press posted under the manga section titled __Snow Angel__. From this point on publishing of new chapters is going to slow somewhat as this story is going to begin deviating substantially from the original and I'm forced to once again engage the creative part of my brain._


	7. Chapter 7

Ah! Lost Angel ch7:

_From this point on the stories __Snow Angel__ and __Lost Angel__ diverge, although the concepts remain similar the writing is original. _

The BoN:

Looking up at Koshian, I could see that he was still in the process of wrapping my head in bandages. "That was a serious blow you suffered just now." He said, "You're lucky to still be alive; if your friend hadn't flagged me down when she did you could very well have wound up bleeding to death."

"Friend?" I croaked out.

"You know," he explained with a wry grin, "the beautiful young woman with the exquisite tattoos and wings, whose lap your head is in right now?"

"Oh her," I sighed as I looked up backwards to the smiling face of World of Elegance who was cradling my head in her lap as I lay on the floor of a small 6 mat room.

"I guess our secret is out?" I asked her in my mind.

"It's impolite to hold a silent conversation while in the presence of another," she answered me with my own voice so Koshian could hear, "Especially one to whom we owe so much."

"Sorry," I told her.

"It is of no matter anyway," Koshian spoke up, "Miss World of Elegance and I have met once before. Although this is the first time I've seen her in the flesh, so to speak."

"Well that's a relief," I told him, "I was afraid that you might panic and not understand."

"Not to worry, for she is the reason for my quest, you see I aspire to one day be able to sing my song in the presence of a beautiful Angel such as her and together be able to send others to a higher plane."

"A most laudable aspiration," I said in awe.

"Truly," he answered me with a straight face, "I'm hopeful that it will not take more than two or three lifetimes to get it right."

Relieved I started to relax and go back to sleep before waking with a start, as I realized that time was passing. Hurriedly, I tried to stand only to feel myself become faint from loss of blood.

"Don't try to stand just yet," Koshian cautioned, "she is a powerful Angel I'm sure, but there are limits to even her strength. There is a skilled alchemist among our ranks, let me wake him and see if we can't mix you up something to get you back on your feet."

With that, Koshian stood and silently exited the room, all the while World of Elegance favoring him with a beautiful smile. Feeling a little jealous, I asked her, "What is with that cat-who-ate-the-canary grin?"

"That's twice," she answered me.

"Twice what?"

"Twice in as many days that somebody has called me beautiful," she said, as she appeared to admire the patterns on her skin.

"Now then," she spoke, her voice taking on a hardened tone in my head, "what kind of deal did you make with Hild?"

"I didn't make any deal with Hild." I denied.

"Kendal my love, you should be dead now, the only reason you aren't is because Hild intervened on your behalf. So please don't lie to me, it doesn't become you, and there is no wrong in doing what you need to do in order to survive."

"I'm sorry," I apologized to her, "I thought I was dying, Hild offered to save my life in exchange for you and I refused but when she asked me about Urd, I knew that there was nothing more I could do so I told her where she was."

"In exchange for what?" Elegance asked me sympathetically.

"Nothing," I told her.

"What!"

"Nothing," I repeated, "I simply told her where Urd was and asked her to let me die in peace."

World of Elegance just sat motionless for almost 90 seconds, stroking my head and pondering my words before a joyous smile blossomed on her face as the implications of my claim finally sank in.

"Kendal, my love, I can't tell if you're incredibly stupid or incredibly smart, but for whatever reason what you just did was a stroke of genius."

"How so?" I asked her somewhat confused.

"A peaceful death is yours by right. By not assigning an arbitrary value to the information you provided Hild and only asking for that which you were already entitled, you forced Hild to compensate you in like kind and value. You traded the information with her that she needed to save Urd's life, forcing her to spare yours in exchange!"

"But now she knows where your host is and I bet she is already coming for her!"

I tried standing again only to have my feet collapse underneath me, forcing Elegance to catch me before hitting my head on the floor.

"I'm so sorry," World of Elegance sobbed, "my mistress and I mostly specialize in love potions and the like. I don't have any skills that I can use to get you back on your feet."

"Dammit! I cannot believe I have come all this way only to fall just short of the finish line again! I have got to get back on my feet."

"Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!" World of Elegance begged, "You already used your favor with Hild! She owes you nothing now! If you fall again it will be for the last time. Please, we will find another way. Don't die on me now! Not when… Not when I've finally found someone I can love."

Of course, she really didn't have anything to worry about, I'd already spent all my strength and I knew it. I had failed again and I knew that too… and it sucked!

A short while later Koshian returned with an elderly Japanese alchemist still shaking the sleep from his eyes, who immediately began examining my head as World of Elegance continued to cradle it in her lap.

"This is Kiamichi," Koshian said. "The head of the BoN in whose Temple we now reside."

"Just what is the BoN?" I asked him.

"The Buddhist of Nashville," Kiamichi answered me in a southern drawl, "considered by Homeland Security to be the most militant nonviolent religious organization in the south." He told me with pride.

"Convenient coincidences that are too convenient to be a coincidence," World of Elegance's words came back to me. Whether or not the God World of Elegance believed in existed; she had trusted her fate to him when she had cast herself at the feet of the only stranger she could find that had a compatible soul. That faith had paid off for her when I had taken up her cause and followed her here to this place and it was I, not her faith that failed her just shy of the finish line. I knew I had given my all to get her as far as I did, but I still had not done everything possible. It was time for me to take the same leap of faith as she had.

Fighting my growing nausea I rolled over and bowed as deeply as I could and begged, "Kiamichi, Koshian, she is lost and alone," I told them pointing to World of Elegance as I did so, "the forces of darkness are moving against her even as we speak, if not quickly reunited both she and the one we came to save will be lost. I can go no further on my own, please help her the rest of the way, please." I cried as I felt tears of frustration springing to my eyes.

"Calm down young man," Kiamichi told me, "none of us here can hold an Angel in our soul as you do. To help her we must first heal you."

"You don't understand," I argued, "she belongs to the soul of another. If she can be returned to her true host then there is no need to heal me."

"I understand, but that person is not here, if we are unable to secure her then what will happen." Kiamichi asked.

"Darkness moves to place the one she seeks beyond the reach of mortal's such as us." I answered him, "If not returned to her host now, then never."

"I see," Kiamichi said, as he appeared to ponder my plea, "Very well then young man, I can whip up something to ease the pain and help keep you on your feet, but you are badly injured so be advised, if you are not careful then you could die!"

"I understand." I told him.

"No!" Screamed World of Elegance in my mind, forgetting her own prohibition on silent conversations as she wrapped her wings around me for protection. "There has to be another way!"

"Trust me, my pretty little Angel," I explained to her, "If there were, then I would gladly take it if only to stay with you a little longer. We must move now."

"What are you going to do!" She asked, now using my voice so all could hear, "Even if you can somehow get me close to Urd, Horace has her under total control and the entire place is crawling with low level demons that mortals such as yourselves can't sense."

"Is that what those silly looking things are?" Koshian asked as the rest of us stared at him in surprise.

"What?" he said, "it was a slow night and I thought I would catch the show."

"You can see those things?" I asked.

"Probably not as clearly as your little Angel but yes I can sense them quite easily, so could you if I had a few years to teach you."

"Even so, you charge in there and the lot of you will be possessed before you got three steps inside." World of Elegance protested.

"Assuming this fellow Horace even knows we are in the building." Kiamichi told her smugly, "In that regard I'm confident that we can remain hidden until needed."

"Are you sure," I asked, "We're dealing with some seriously weird supernatural shit here."

"It is you westerners who find such doings as these strange." Koshian told me, "I have two more such as her living in my home right now."

"Koshian my friend," Kiamichi interrupted, looking towards him gravely, "Time is of the essence it would seem and we must act now. Would you be so kind as to rouse the rest of the temple and inform the monks of the task we have undertaken this night?"

"My great pleasure," Koshian answered him with a bow.

Exiting the room, Koshian went out into the courtyard and struck the bell hanging there three times. Back in my room I watched in fascination as Kiamichi pulled out several vials filled with foul smelling herbs and grasses from the folds of his robe and began grinding them up in a small stone bowl, adding just enough water to make a disgusting looking paste. Finishing he offered it to me with a hopeful look. Holding my nose, I swallowed the foul tasting concoction and immediately fell to the floor as my stomach tried to turn itself inside out.

Realizing that she had been outvoted, World of Elegance sighed in my mind before saying, "If this is the way it is going to be then we need to be prepared as possible. Alcohol, specifically Sake is a secondary form of energy for Urd and me. Horace is essentially starving her, forcing her to perform her tricks in exchange for what little energy he is supplying her. If she / I are to have any chance at all then I need to get my energy levels maxed out before we try again. That means that I am going to need to ingest as much Sake as I can without passing out. The major downside to that idea is that alcohol affects me the same way it affects humans, in other words I will be totally blitzed when the action starts."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I asked her, "The situation is dicey enough as it is, charging in there without all your wits about you doesn't sound like a very good idea to me."

"Nothing about this plan sounds like a good idea!" she snapped, "Nevertheless, desperation is driving my actions now, if I can just merge with Urd I'll be okay. The actions of an Angel, drunk or otherwise are of no consequence once merged with their host since, if Hild is to be believed, I don't really have any freewill to begin with."

I was pretty sure that last jab was aimed at me as a result of having forced the issue. However, the truth is what it is and the simple truth of the matter was that we were not going to get another opportunity like this one.

"I'm sorry, Elegance," I told her, "but we've already come this far. Do you really want to let this window of opportunity to slip away?"

"No and you're right, there might not be a better time to resolve this matter than the present. I'm just scared that Urd might not ever let me see you again."

"We always have known that was to be our fate, if we fight it we'll play ourselves into our opponent's hands." I said.

"God, why do you have to be right all the time!" She exclaimed mentally.

Looking to Kiamichi I explained our strategy and asked him for a large bottle of rice wine which he said he would supply. When I was once again able to move, he conducted me to the courtyard where Koshian was briefing four more monks holding paddles in their hands.

"You made it to Homeland Security's number one position with just six members?" I asked him in awe.

"It was mostly just a PR campaign." Kiamichi explained.

As Koshian finished his briefing, I could see him take the paddle he was holding and illustrate a special kind of blow he wanted the other monks to learn.

"What is he doing?" World of Elegance asked him with my voice.

"You ever hear the term, 'slapping the shit out of someone?'" Kiamichi asked.

"Well yes," World of Elegance answered with a blush.

"Well this is the same technique applied to demons."

"Huh," we both asked.

"Demons are metaphysical. Beyond manipulation in the physical world, this is not the same as saying beyond our ability to reach. When demons possess or otherwise occupy a physical host they become part of that host and therefore vulnerable to injury that the host might suffer. What Koshian is doing is teaching the other monks how to strike the human host in such a fashion as to drive the demon from them without killing the person in the process."

"So what you're telling me is they are practicing doing a Japanese exorcism."

"Actually no," Kiamichi explained, "this idea was first developed by the Scott's, only they did it by holding the head of the possessed individual on the ground and then striking them with a specially shaped club. Golf, is what I think they called it. We just improved on the process by using a special paddle that allows us to catch the demon in the air as they begin to merge."

"Sort of like a metaphysical version of Lacrosse." I said sarcastically.

"Exactly."

Walking up to the small group of monks Koshian introduced us. "These are our allies. Our mission is to intercede if necessary and keep the forces of darkness at bay long enough for our young friend to return this lost Angel to her rightful place."

With that, the four other monks looked the two of us up and down and vanished into the night, disappearing without a trace.

"Where did they go?" I asked Kiamichi who had been standing next to me a second ago. Not hearing any answer I looked about and discovered that he was gone too.

"They went on ahead." Koshian explained as he pointed towards his bright yellow taxi, "By the time we reach Printers Alley they will have already penetrated the security of the Skull and Rainbow room. Don't worry they will be there, hiding in the shadows ready to strike if needed.

Staggering slightly Koshian steadied me by my elbow before leading us towards his taxi. "Quickly now we must make haste," he urged, "the medicine you took will only keep you on your feet for a very short time."

Taking World of Elegance in my arms, I held her tightly for a few short seconds before asking her, "Are you ready for this?"

"You be careful," she chided me, "just get me inside where I can see Urd and you leave the rest to Koshian and his friends. You have done enough, do you understand, enough! Let the others take it from here."

"Don't worry about me," I comforted her, "I'm not dying until I collect that debt you owe in full."

"Now who's manipulating the situation to their advantage?" She asked playfully.

Moments later, we were in the backseat of Koshian's taxi speeding down the interstate once again heading into harm's way. As she was guzzling from the bottle of Sake that Kiamichi had left in the rear seat for her World of Elegance had an idea. Sliding over next to me she offered me the bottle saying, "It's not polite to let a woman drink alone."

"I'd love to join you but remember the whole point of this is to get your power readings up."

"That IS my point," she smiled seductively handing me the bottle, "Angels are parasites remember? That means I have the ability to absorb the excess energy from you as well as what I can consume from the bottle. It might just give me the little extra reserve needed to make the difference."

"_Well it's not like my head could be made to hurt much worse, so why not?"_ I thought to myself as I joined her.

Taking a strong pull from the bottle I handed it back to her as she did the same. As we continued, passing the bottle back and forth our inhibitions went out the window as World of Elegance's power levels went through the roof. Under cover of her black wing our hands were soon wandering over each other's bodies in an overly familiar fashion; it was only Koshian's lurching the cab to a halt at the entrance to the alley that kept us from crossing into X-rated territory.

Exiting the cab, I held her tightly even as I leaned heavily on Koshian for support. Unable to force ourselves to let each other go World of Elegance melted into my soul leaving the poor monk to bear the full weight of my inebriated body as he walked me towards the center of the alley.

As we proceeded on our way, I could tell that Horace had decided to become proactive. It seemed that rather than wait for me to confront him at the club he had possessed several members of the Tennessee Terrors motorcycle gang and dispatched them to intercept me at the entranceway. Sadly, to the misfortune of the bikers it appeared that Horace had not considered the possibility that we might have gained allies.

Now, to the casual observer nothing looked to be that out of place, just a bunch of thugs that had too much to drink lying against the buildings sleeping it off. However, a more careful examination of the slumped over bodies of the unconscious bikers revealed that the BoN advance force had used them to hone their exorcism skills. Using World of Elegance's enhanced vision it was easy for me to discern the remains of the splattered eight legged demons that had once possessed the bikers, the poor creatures having met their end through apparent high-speed contact with the wall where their former hosts now lay unconscious.

Entering the club, the bouncer immediately recognized me and moved to block our path. Without breaking his stride, Koshian raised his free hand and in an almost lazy fashion moved it rapidly back and forth causing the tips of his fingers to break the sound barrier. Cupping his hand he focused the sonic boom on the eight-legged demon resident in the bouncer's cranium, when the shock wave made contact with the demon the sound energy was translated into momentum propelling the poor creature from the bouncer's brain just shy of the speed of sound. An instant later an eight-pointed star shaped impression was seen to form on the soot stained wall opposite where we stood.

Pushing our way past the dazed bouncer, I noted that Urd's final act of the evening was in full swing. As I continued to watch Urd came to a stuttering halt on the stage and I was once again the focus of everybody's unwanted attention. Realizing that this was as close as I could get her, World of Elegance left my soul and was in flight flying drunkenly in a zigzag pattern between the roof supports as she tried to get back to Urd. Instantly Horace cast some kind of sealing spell isolating Urd to the stage and forming a barrier between her and her Angel.

With Urd secure for the moment, Horace turned his attention to World of Elegance. With an unspoken command, he roused the low-level demons hanging from the roof above the stage. One by one, they began to detach themselves from the ceiling with a soft plopping noise to drift down and alight upon the drunken patrons of the club in order to possess them. As each person was possessed, they began to move in a robot like fashion as Horace began herding them like cattle in order to form a living wall blocking World of Elegance's attempts to get to Urd while simultaneously preventing her from retreating towards me.

While these events were transpiring the BoN who had been standing unnoticed in the shadows until now, sprang into action and with a sound that reminded me of the crack of a baseball bat began using their paddles to drive the demons from their unwitting hosts, the demons themselves making a sickening splattering noise as they plowed into the far wall.

Apparently, Horace was a little slow on the uptake and for a few minutes those were the only noises that could be heard in the club, plop, crack, splat; plop, crack, splat; plop, crack, splat. Finally, he seemed to realize that World of Elegance had acquired allies but not until a large number of his demon army had already been eliminated. When he did figure it out he refocused his demon's attack on the members of the BoN themselves, forcing them to go on the defensive. Koshian, who had been guarding me up until that point realized that he was required elsewhere and quickly guided me to an unoccupied table, passing me off to the willing hands of some twelve-year-old child with platinum hair sitting there before going to the aid of his fellow monks.

"That is the big problem with her staying up in heaven all the time," the child said as she watched the demonic carnage disinterestedly.

"What do you mean?" I asked her suspiciously.

"She let herself become complacent, letting her guard down the way she did!" the child continued, "If I told her once I've told her 1000 times, 'never trust your IFF.' You always, always need to get eyes on your target! If she had just glanced over her shoulder she would have realized something was up before Horace ever had a chance to get a shot off."

"Do you mind if I ask just who the hell are you and what is an underage girl like you doing in an establishment like this to begin with?"

"I'm Urd's mother you idiot! This is just the form I take when I don't want to be noticed. As for me being here, I am the ruler of Hel after all! I go where I please and any who would gainsay me that do so at their own hazard!"

Looking intently at my table mate I was dismayed to notice that she bore a striking resemblance to Urd and an even more striking resemblance to Hild! Slowly I realized that I was in fact sitting helpless at a table in a bar, holding a one on one conversation with the ruler of Hel.

"Now, if she had just stayed with me like I begged her too then she would have known better." Hild continued to explain, "There is always some overly ambitious demon like Horace and his ilk up to their elbows in some cockamamie plot to overthrow me. She needs that kind of intrigue and political backstabbing that come with these plots to keep her reflexes honed. "

"Wait a second," I interjected, "World of Elegance told me that it was someone from Heaven, some Valkyrie named Lind who did her dirty."

"Well duh," Hild scoffed, "what part of _shape changing demon_ do you not understand? Horace is a lust demon and has no qualms assuming whatever form necessary in order to get inside his victims defenses! This is the first time I have ever seen him use his abilities for a tactical purpose but the mechanics remain the same. As for Urd, I am so pissed off at her right now that I could hit her upside the head! She just let him sneak up behind her and shoot her in the ass! Talk about embarrassing, she is supposed to be the daughter of the Daimakaicho!"

"If you are her mother then why do you continue to allow this evil to be done!"

"Because I am evil, you moron!" Hild answered me, "I can't just charge in and put a stop to this, there are political realities that must be considered. If this was happening in the two lower domains I could intercede on her behalf citing succession as the reason. However, Urd is technically a member of the other side and Horace had every right to capture her. As long as she remains here in Midgard I have no authority to take any actions against Horace beyond what is required to enforce the doublet."

"The doublet?" I asked her.

"Sort of a prisoner protection system," she explained, "if one of ours dies then one of theirs dies and vice versa. It keeps this endless conflict from escalating out of control and turning into a full-scale blood bath. Not that that is of any concern to Horace, he is just hiding behind the law to keep me at bay. He fully intends to kill my daughter, but he intends to do it slowly, painfully. Humiliating her every step of the way, knowing that if I step in to help her others will consider it favoritism and if I don't, impotence. In either event, the political fallout will be enough to weaken my ability to maintain control over my domain and my eventual overthrow would be inevitable, doublet will be abolished and full scale war between Heaven and Hel will ensue."

"So what's your plan to keep this from happening then?"

"Plan? What makes you think I have a plan? I might have been able to come up with a plan had I been able to secure the cooperation of a certain unnamed individual currently sitting at this table had he been willing to do so. But since that didn't happen now I have no choice other than to wait and see what happens next." She smiled at me wickedly.

"You're kidding me I hope."

"I never kid," she answered me seriously, "Isn't it exciting though? Can't you feel the electricity in the air as we all watch helplessly waiting as the fate of all creation is decided in these next few minutes by the actions of a drunken Angel and a what… down and out two bit ski bum?"

_Author's notes: _

_I was roused from my slumber early this morning by my need to hurry up and finish this chapter. However, as I began typing these words, other words, words that had nothing to do with what I was trying to write kept insisting that I put them down as well, which I did just so I could get them out of my head. Now that they are out, I really have no place to put them. I am pretty sure these words are not my words and I would credit the author if I knew who he was. Since I have no place else to put these words I thought I might append them here in the hope that they might find their way into the thoughts of whomever they were intended for:_

The truth:

The truth is what it is. It has no agenda; it knows no political party or allegiance.

The truth is singular. There is no your truth or my truth or their truth. There is only one truth.

The truth is quantifiable. If it cannot be expressed as facts and figures then it is not the truth, it is opinion.

The truth is inevitable. Those who deny the truth do so at their own peril.

The truth is constant. An inconvenient truth is still the truth. The truth never changes.

The truth is NOT hate speech. The lexicon of the truth is not limited to that deemed politically correct.

The truth is NOT subject to interpretation. No matter how many ways it is re-worded, the truth remains the same.

The truth though spoken only once will always be the truth. A lie will always remain a lie even if repeated 100 million times.

The truth is… everything else is not.


	8. Chapter 8

Ah! Lost Angel ch8:

The Skull and Rainbow room.

"However, my demise will be neither swift nor painless and guess who will be my personal boy toy for the remainder of my tenure." Hild's childlike avatar continued as she smiled at me evilly.

Alcohol, as I'm sure you are aware, affects different people in different ways, but one of its universal constants is that it releases your inhibitions. In this case, the sake that I had shared with World of Elegance had managed to suppress the self-preservation mode on my mouth.

"Bullshit!" I told her, "You are the ruler of Hel! You had to have known that Horace was gunning for your daughter. A single word of caution from you is all it would have took to put her on guard. You wanted something like this to happen so that you could exploit it in order to get some leverage on her!"

The anger on Hild's face was evident, how much effort she was using to suppress her rage I couldn't tell but I suspected that it was significant. She took several deep breaths to calm herself before turning to face me. When she did, I could see that her eyes were glowing bright red.

"Truthful words have a special power all their own," Hild said as her eyes dimmed slightly, "but it is the words themselves, not the speaker that are protected."

Staring into her glowing eyes I was sure that I had breathed my last when the light suddenly went away as she focused her attention on the floor.

"So tell me truth speaker, is that so wrong? Is it wrong for a mother to want to spend time with her daughter, to want to tell her what a fine woman she has become, to just stand and watch with pride as she kicks the ass of every two-bit demon Hel has to offer? Is that really so wrong!"

"No, I guess not." I answered her...truthfully.

Focusing her attention once again on the stage Hild smiled before turning towards me again and saying. "Time for the main event Mr. Kendal and you should watch it very closely. Hers isn't the only soul whose fate now hangs in the balance."

Painfully lifting my head from the beer soaked table, I surveyed the carnage that had been the Skull and Rainbow room moments before. The formally possessed patrons of the club were all walking around in a daze. Here and there were the comatose bodies of a few patrons who, while never possessed were caught up in the heat of the moment and tried to kill me anyway. (Unfortunately for them with no demon inside their heads to absorb the force and the poor monks having no way to discern between them, they had been subjected to the same exorcising blow as had everyone else, reshaping several skulls and placing them all in comas lasting six to ten days.)

World of Elegance had found her way to the center of the stage and was staggering drunkenly about trying vainly to get past the barrier that imprisoned Urd. For his part, Horace was laughing at her antics while the rest of his demon army watched from the supposed safety of the ceiling. With exaggerated slowness, Horace formed two powerful exploding balls of energy, which I discovered later to be called depth charges, one in each hand and taking deliberate aim, he let fly one after the other.

World of Elegance saw the charges coming but her extreme level of inebriation prevented her from reacting as quickly as she should. She barely dodged the first as it missed her by a hairs breath but she was forced to expend valuable energy in order to block the second, accidently deflecting it up into the ceiling. Instantly incinerating those remaining demons that had been reluctant to join in the Demons vs. Monks lacrosse match taking place on the club's floor moments before. Consequently and quite by accident, World of Elegance had inadvertently leveled the playing field and Horace now found himself one on one with Urd's Angel.

The explosion of the ceiling also gave new direction to the patrons of the club as they all simultaneously sought the serenity of the nighttime sky. The BoN in the spirit of good Samaritans everywhere posted themselves at the clubs fire exits and assisted in its timely evacuation, occasionally using their paddles to help someone out the door who they suspected might still be possessed.

Back inside the club, Horace began quickly circling the stage while World of Elegance staggered about as she tried to dodge his rapid-fire attack. Eventually one of Horace's depth charges creased World of Elegance's derrière finally provoking her to go on the offensive. Forming two blue depth charges of her own, one in each hand, World of Elegance let loose with her counter attack. Throwing each depth charge in a sidearm fashion World of Elegance tried to pin Horace in the crossfire. Not that Horace had anything to worry about as the vector of the two depth charges caused them to cross paths harmlessly in front of him. However, unlike Horace's depth charges, which exploded on contact with anything they touched, World of Elegance's depth charges careened off the opposite walls, one of them coming so close to our table that we both had to dive for cover before bouncing off another obstruction like a crazy pinball.

"Crap, the stupid bitch forgot to set the contact detonators!" Hild swore from under the table where we now hid for safety.

And that's how it went for the next several minutes, Horace continuing to pummel World of Elegance with a seemingly ceaseless barrage of depth charges as he circled the room while World of Elegance fired back at him willy-nilly from the stage. After awhile it became apparent that she was tiring, her counterattacks becoming more sluggish while the interior of the club itself looked more and more like the inside of some insane version of Break Out as all of her unexpended depth charges bounced off of every immovable object in the room and each other.

As for me, I had more or less made my peace with the fact that come tomorrow I would find myself chained to some infernal torture machine in the ninth ring of Hel as Hild made good on her promise when I heard her exclaim. "Now that's the kind of deviousness you should expect from the Daimakaicho's daughter!"

"Say what?" I asked her groggily.

"Look to the left of the roof stanchion," she said proudly, "just above center stage. The next four balls will hit just to the left followed by one to the right then two more to the left."

Looking to where Hild was indicating I observed that the wildly bouncing depth charges did indeed do exactly as Hild had predicted.

"So what does it mean?" I asked her.

"What you are looking at is a dynamic pattern that is self-balancing. If the path of any one of her unexpended depth charges is altered, the entire pattern will collapse on itself towards the direction of the anomaly. In other words if Horace tries to get back to that stage he will be pounded senseless the second he touches any of those blue balls. I do hope that Urd's Angel had the good sense to dial down the power in those things, otherwise I'm going to be forced to renege on my deal with Garm."

"But if that trap works the way you say, then all Horace has to do is walk away in order to defeat it." I told her.

"Not happening," Hild said flatly.

"Why do you say that?"

"Kendal do you know how to catch a monkey?" Hild asked me sweetly causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.

"Yes as a matter of fact I do." I answered her proudly. Seeing the questioning look in her eyes, I expounded.

"What you do is cut a small hole in a coconut, barely large enough for the monkey to put his hand through. Stick a piece of fruit inside and tie the coconut to a tree or something. The monkey will smell the fruit, stick his hand into the coconut and grab it only to discover that now he cannot pull his closed fist out of the hole. Not being possessed of the wherewithal to let go of the fruit he will just stay there with his hand stuck in that hole until someone comes along and makes a meal out of him."

"_Once you get tired of roaming the country like a vagabond look me up, I'm sure I can find you a job in upper management somewhere."_ Hild spoke under her breath, "Anyway, monkey," she said pointing to Horace, "fruit." Now pointing to the two women on the stage, "Assuming he doesn't die in the process Garm will be receiving his delivery on time after all."

For his part, Horace was not so easily drawn in. Now that World of Elegance had finished her pattern there was a certain symmetry in it that even I could see. The problem was that Horace could see it too and was circling the outside walls of the club carefully studying the pattern looking for any signs of weakness. As I sat and watched Horace as he studied the conundrum Hild casually reached out and touched on of the depth charges altering its path slightly.

Gasping in mock shock as if she suddenly realized what she did might be considered inappropriate, Hild put her hand to her mouth and asked me shyly. "That's not considered cheating is it… truth speaker?"

"Not as long as his back is to you." I answered her.

"I didn't think so either." Hild said, finishing under her breath with_, "Got me a brand new senior VP of marketing, I have."_

Eventually Horace noticed the errant path of the depth charge and instantly pounced, weaving in and out of World of Elegance's convoluted pattern and making it almost to the stage before grazing the side of one of the wildly bouncing blue balls. What happened next was almost enough to make me feel sorry for the poor demon who had tried to have me killed a few hours before. The pattern instantly became unstable and Horace was hit by six depth charges nearly simultaneously, one from each direction. The concussion of the explosions was of such magnitude that all the fire doors were blown from their hinges. After that, the depth charges appeared to line up in formation and drive him backwards against the far wall where the force of the rapidly repeating blasts then proceeded to imbed his body six inches into the cinderblocks.

I didn't see much more after that, as I was convinced that World of Elegance's trap was going to bring the roof down on us all. So I curled into a tight ball putting my head between my knees as I did so in order for me to kiss my ass goodbye. Finally, the noise subsided and when I looked up again all I could see was devastation. Every piece of furniture in the place had been reduced to tooth picks, (Including the one I was under, Hild having formed a spherical barrier of sorts that protected the two of us.) Every glass was shattered, every bottle of booze spilled and every light was broken. The only light in the place coming from the softly glowing shield that protected me.

What I saw was as dismaying as it was curious. Horace had lost control of his shape changing ability and was now in his natural form. That being the shape of a shrunken old man barely four feet tall who's only really distinguishing characteristic was his permanently erect 10-inch long manhood. On stage stood Urd, the barrier that sealed her now gone, World of Elegance was nowhere to be found and the vacant zombie like stare still remained on Urd's face. Pulling himself from the wall Horace walked calmly up to the stage, picked up Urd's leash, and began to lead her off stage. He had only taken his second step when suddenly Urd's eyes came into focus. Wresting the leash from his grasp she wrapped it around his shriveled old neck and began to throttle him.

Hild sat and watched with pride as her daughter slowly killed her would be captor. It wasn't until it seemed that Horace had taken his last breath that she finally decided to intervene.

"Urd'ie that is enough," Hild's authoritative voice boom through the club. Looking to the direction of her voice, I noticed that Hild had switched from her child form to that of the Daimakaicho causing the pair of them to notice her for the first time.

"Mother, what are you saying!" Urd screamed at her. "What he did to me was beyond the pale. Where are the rules that you so painstakingly drilled into my head now, where is the accountability! He deserves to die and you know it!"

"This is not a matter for debate my dear, it is because of those rules that I'm ordering you to stop! If you kill him then doublet will attach and one of Heaven's will die as well. You know the process, run your complaint through normal channels if you feel that strongly about it!"

"Almighty's wrath upon him then!" Urd swore as she released her hold on his neck.

Once free Horace threw himself prostrate at Hild's feet before crawling behind her kissing her feet like a beaten dog. From behind the safety of Hild's shadow, I could see Horace as he smiled victoriously towards Urd just as Hild turned her attention to him.

"As for you my dear Horace," she smiled "what am I to do with you? You know what a proponent of teamwork I am. Look at all this, do you have any idea how much work my containment team has cut out for them now. How many memories they are going to have to alter, how much damage they need to repair? And to think this entire embarrassing situation was avoidable. All you had to do was report Urd's capture through channels then I could have sent a team to keep her secure until we transported her back to the Demon Realm. Right now, you should be basking in the accolades of your peers for having successfully captured such a powerful goddess single handedly. Such a prize would have made for a very powerful bargaining chip, you would have been handsomely rewarded and many of our imprisoned comrades could have been returned home. However, you decided to go it alone and now we have lost that opportunity along with almost an entire herd of prime booster demons, so now I must punish you instead."

"I apologize for the loss of the prize your Majesty but as the law states she was mine to do with as I please so long as I remained in Midgard. I'm sure after a careful review by my peers that no fault will be assigned for my having lost a skirmish to one so powerful. As for the loss of your booster demons, those were legitimate battle expenditures and Heaven should be required to make restitution.

"What you say is not so true my dear Horace." Hild smiled kindly, "Losing to my daughter is no shame that's true, but failure to take proper security precautions after she was captured. That IS your fault! As for the loss of all my lovely booster demons, not even one was destroyed by the actions of Urd's Angel! They were destroyed either by actions of the mortals or by your poorly timed attacks. Therefore, the cost of their replacement will be coming out of your hide."

"It will, of course, be as you decide your Majesty. I just wanted to…"

"You just wanted to bask in your own glory rather than follow the rules I've so carefully laid down to govern the realm. The fact of the matter is that you are not a team player; you are a showboat and a liability to the rest of the team. I must therefore take action I would rather not take." Hild spoke firmly.

"Bah," Horace growled at her, "Your policy of doublet and power sharing is undermining the strength of the realm! Seal me for the next 500 years if it pleases you! Nevertheless, know this; there are more like me out there! We will again know days of glory, of blood, battle and conquest and no amount of your accommodations to the other side will keep us from our destiny!

The way that Horace went off on his boss I was sure that I was about to witness him being vaporized. Instead, Hild looked at him sadly almost as if she felt sorrow for him before speaking once again.

"Poor, poor Horace," she began patting him softly on the shoulders as she spoke, "it is when I hear you say things such as this that I realize you still do not understand and for that misunderstanding I find that there is no one else to blame but me. I have spent centuries reorganizing the Demon realm to run on a performance based business model. I consider every one of my subjects as assets. Well performing assets I reward for their good performance. Underperforming assets I give special attention too, try to find their weaknesses and correct their difficulties. Toxic assets however," she said, her voice menacing as her nails dug painfully into Horace's shoulder, "I am compelled to purge from the books."

Holding Horace painfully by his left shoulder with one hand Hild reached into her blouse with the other and extracted her cell phone; flipping it open without dialing, she spoke succinctly, "Garm dear, you can take delivery now."

"With pleasure," came the growling like voice of Garm as he emerged from the shadows. Taking hold of Horace by his other shoulder he dragged the struggling demon over to where I lay and touching his free hand (paw) to my back, he paralyzed my body before beginning the painful process of transferring the old demon's life force over to me.

Shortly after I passed out, my final memories of that night being paralyzing pain and the death rattle of an overly ambitious demon.

Nine days later, I woke on the floor of the same six mat room where I first met Koshian, Kiamichi and the rest of the BoN. The first thing I remembered upon waking wasn't that I was cold and hungry. It was that I was alone, so very alone. It was as if someone had cut out a piece of my heart and tossed it away. I literally didn't have any will to live. To me it seemed all the color had been drained from my surroundings. The blue sky had no color, the flowers no perfume, the birds no song. I probably would have starved to death had the monks not been so determined to keep me alive. After about two weeks the pain inside finally subsided to the point where I did not spontaneously break down in tears. A week later, the monks thought it was safe enough to trust me with tools and I began to work at odd jobs around the temple grounds to pay back my debt. A month later, I was called into Kiamichi's office and made a proposition.

"Kendal my friend," Kiamichi began, "the BoN is, as I'm sure you are aware, a charitable organization. As such, we receive our monetary support from many non-standard sources, donations and the like. A number of years ago we received a rather large donation in the form of some vacation property located in the North Lake Tahoe region, the benefactor himself seeking enlightenment in the Swiss alps. For the last several years, we have had that property administered for us by a professional management firm but for some reason our property seems to be under performing when compared with similar properties in the area. Last year's performance was so abysmal as to have me considering selling the property rather than continue to try to maintain it. You being a businessman are educated in the ways of finance. I have been observing how you have worked yourself ragged as you try to square the debt you owe, but manual labor such as you perform here while humbling is also a serious waste of talent. Therefore, would you, as a favor to me, as well to repay the debt consider relocating to Lake Tahoe and be our resident manager for this next season. All I ask is that you send me regular updates and tell me what we need to do to get back on track. If after the first season you do not want to stay, I will consider your debt to the BoN repaid and you can go where you will. If you like the job however, please feel free to remain as our permanent on site manager."

A few days later, I found myself back on the road again, having taken Amtrak back to Oklahoma City where I retrieved my old van from the airport parking lot and promptly pointing it westward, I headed back to where my adventure first began. The hole in my heart had never fully healed but the pain had subsided to a dull ache. However, as I approached Groom that began to change, the hole in my heart once again aching in loss the emptiness growing as the Groom Cross loomed ever larger in my windshield. It was all I could do to keep the tears from blinding me as I pulled off the road that evening. Running around to the backside of the scene of the crucifixions I threw myself down on the ground and just cried and cried. Finally, I cried myself to sleep, remaining there unnoticed until the middle of the next day.


	9. Chapter 9

Ah! Lost Angel ch9:

Urd.

"I would have thought you would be taller," came the sweet voice of the beautiful woman once known as the Zombie stripper as she woke me from my grief-induced slumber.

"Do I know you?" I asked as I tried to make sense of this sudden intrusion into my little world of sorrow. I recognized the owner of the voice as that of Urd, World of Elegance's true host, but I had never spoken to her directly and I didn't think that she would want to have anything to do with me, seeing as how I was just the delivery boy.

"I'm the baggage," she told me.

"The baggage?"

"Yes," Urd answered, "I'm the part that drags down my higher half, the one who keeps her from obtaining her full potential."

"I can't say that I know her any better than you, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't see it that way."

"Whatever," she smiled, "the fact still remains I am the lesser of the two halves."

"Self-loathing does not become either of you." I snapped at her, "You are as God made you and from my perspective, he did one hell of a job! Why don't you postpone your little pity party and do as she did and embrace who you really are?"

The hurt look in her eyes told me I had scored a point, but I was not in the mood to ease her insecurities. World of Elegance was back in her rightful place in Urd's soul and had left a gaping hole in my heart. The pain I was feeling just now did not leave room for me to worry about the pain I might be causing her.

"If it is any consolation you left as big a hole in her heart as she probably left in yours." She spoke bitterly, as if reading my mind, "So we both know the pain that you are feeling."

"I apologize, World of Elegance warned me that I would suffer when she was finally returned to her proper place, I just didn't realize how badly I would feel. This is a pain many times worse than the betrayal I suffered when my ex-wife stabbed me in the back."

"I can help you with that, maybe."

"How?"

"Do you remember when we talked about Heavens Grace?"

"You mean when World of Elegance told me about the river of time."

"Yes, the balancing act we do when someone's bad fortune and good fortune are out of whack."

"How could I forget, all things considered? Did my returning World of Elegance to you help me make the cut?"

"Although it might have been different had little miss Hot Pants not been so eager to spread her legs, the fact of the matter is even after all you've done, after all you suffered, after all the pain you feel ripping you apart, you still DON'T qualify!

"It's not like I ever really thought I did," I lied, as I tried to hide my disappointment, "so why bother to tell me something I already knew?"

"Well I am the daughter of the Almighty One, so at my other half's insistence I interceded on your behalf and was given authority to grant you a little of Heavens Grace."

"_Talk about your cheep sluts!"_ I felt myself rage inside, it was if she thought this pain in my heart was for sale, that somehow it was possible to make the hurt stop by throwing money at it. Maybe World of Elegance thought she was doing the right thing, thinking she might have shortchanged me somehow, but Urd should have known better having already been in the same boat I was. In an instant, the pain inside me refocused itself into white-hot anger!

"Don't go doing me any favors! I did what I did for her sake, not yours!" I shouted.

For a second it appeared that Urd was taken aback by the virulence of my outburst but she quickly regained her composure. "So, do you hate me Mr. Kendal?" Urd asked bluntly, "do you loathe me for having that which you do not."

I guess I had that one coming for treating her with such disdain, but it was an honest question so I gave her an honest answer. "The answer to that is no," I told her flatly, "I do envy you however, because you will always know the wholeness that comes from having World of Elegance in your heart. Moreover, I guess I hurt a little due to the knowledge that I will never be complete as you are. However, I cannot hate you, because that would be the same as hating her! Truth be told my feelings are exactly the opposite. I love her, so much so that I'm willing to endure this pain that she might be returned to her proper place. That said, you offering to try and buy me off somehow only exacerbates the pain I feel."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, because I'm not offering to buy you off." Urd told me, "All I'm doing is offering to grant you a small wish which if worded correctly might ease your pain somewhat."

"What kind of wish!" I cried, "Other than ripping her from your soul and giving her to me, what can you possibly offer me that will cause this hurt to go away!"

"I could do that if you want, if you think that will repay the debt. But be warned, you won't be satisfied."

"I know, I know," I said bitterly, "besides what would be the point of going through all this only to steal back that which I fought so hard to return. Besides, in the end I would just have to give her up, so much as I would love to hold her in my arms again the pain of having to let her go will only come back that much greater. Better for all I think were we to just go our separate ways and part friends."

"You are a wise man but you still don't understand. Right now, you feel what you feel because it is new and different, but World of Elegance is shaped in my image, not yours! Were you to continue to hold her in your soul she would eventually reshape yours into something resembling mine. Once that happened the joyous act of physical love between the two of you would degrade into something more akin to masturbation, not very satisfying for either of you."

"Thanks for clarifying that," I said, "at least now I know what not to wish for."

"_I think we have a nibble."_ I heard World of Elegance say to Urd mentally.

Hearing World of Elegance's familiar voice in my head after being gone for so long was a welcome relief. I was about to shout for joy when I realized that what I was hearing was the supposedly private conversation between an Angel and her host. Since I did not know whether the voice in my head was because of accident or design I thought it best to behave as if I did not hear her.

"_Shush, don't distract me!"_ Urd chided her mentally.

"If this were a normal wish and I a first class goddess," Urd continued, as if she had not been interrupted by her other half, "then I would be permitted to offer you anything your heart desired. From granting you more riches than you can possibly spend in your lifetime to the destruction of the entire world. However, this is not the case. I am just a second-class goddess and my powers are severely limited so I can only offer you a much smaller wish. I could for instance, make you the same offer that my mother did and give you your life back with the exception of the part where your ex-wife comes crawling back to you. The powers that be up in heaven not being that much into the vengeance thing. Another possibility, while I cannot make you rich I can make it so that you will never have to worry about money again, giving you the freedom to follow your dreams. Both of which I think are very good wishes by the way, however, they still won't help to heal the pain that is in your heart."

"Well then," I asked her, "what would you recommend?"

"Sadly, I can't answer that for you. This is your wish and only you can decide what is best for you."

"Honestly, right now with the emotional component tearing me up like it is I think that the smart choice would be to put this entire wish thing on hold until later when I have my head screwed on straight."

_"Looks like he's fixing to spit the hook." _I heard World of Elegance say to Urd mentally in a panic,_ "Time to put on the full-court press before he gets away."_

_"If I press him too hard he might just bolt and then where will we be?" _Urd answered her.

_"Well do something, anything just don't let him get away!"_

_"Well then what do you suggest I do!"_

_"It doesn't matter! Tackle him if you have to!"_

"I think I understand." Urd continued, the air of disappointment surrounding her, "It is a momentous decision I know and you want to make the best of it, but first let me plead our case."

"Our case?" I asked curiously.

"World of Elegance and myself," she said.

"I still don't understand."

"I am her, she is me and we are us." Urd said with an air of defiance, "when one of us speaks we speak for the both of us, we are one and the same."

"I see, I think."

"The sadness you and we both feel was caused by the other and only the other can heal the pain."

"Come again?" I asked her.

"What I am trying to explain to you is that I / we caused this pain in you when we left your soul. You caused the same pain in us when you set us free. If you truly wish to heal this pain in your heart then you must also wish to heal the pain in ours."

"So you're saying if I were to wish for say…"

"Hypothetical." Urd interrupted me.

"What?"

"Use the term Hypothetical with regards to your wish. Otherwise the system might record it as actual."

"Okay," I sighed starting over, "Hypothetically speaking, you need my wish to say something like, 'Heel the pain in mine and your hearts?'"

"Were it only that simple." Urd replied disheartened, "You see there are action and reaction consequences when we screw with the balance, so we operate under very strict limits. One such limitation is that you only get one wish, another is that the actions of the granter must react directly against the imbalance of the recipient. You cannot wish for something like do X and then do Y, that would require two separate actions on my part.

"Okay then, how is it possible for you to help me to help you seeing as how I only get one wish?"

"Properly worded it is possible," Urd admitted. "I like to call it the Domino Effect, multiple solutions are allowed so long as they stem from a single action."

"Can you explain to me how that works?"

"Well then, here is a good example. Let's say that you are a passenger on the Titanic and it has just hit the iceberg when a goddess came to you offering a single wish. Now the only reason that Heaven ever offers a wish to anybody is to redress the imbalance of a person's good fortune vs. misfortune. In this example, you having spent your lifesavings to buy a ticket on a ship destined to sink on its maiden voyage created the imbalance. You also need to understand that there is nothing the goddess can do about the ship sinking, that event is in the past beyond her reach. Nor, as I just explained, can you ask her to save everyone else on the ship because this is your wish and it must act directly to correct the principal recipient's imbalance, AKA you. Under those circumstances, you could reason that you are only left with the unenviable choice of using your one wish to save yourself or if you are into self-sacrifice maybe somebody else. However, if you really, really wanted to save as many as you could, then you might want to wish for something like 'Slow the flooding until help arrives.' That is a single finite action on the part of the granter that acts directly on the recipient yet still allows for multiple people to benefit from the correction."

"So, you're saying that I have to wish for something where the cause and effect will have a favorable outcome for the both of us."

"You got it."

"I'm listening, what do you want me to say?"

"Well, I already know how you feel about World of Elegance." Urd began, "So answer me this, what do you think of me, physically I mean? Do you find me attractive?"

"Yes, very much so," I answered her honestly, "any red blooded male would be proud to be seen with somebody as beautiful as you on their arm."

"What about the matter of my pedigree? Does it concern you any that I am the spawn of both the demon and heavenly realms?"

"In that regard I think God hath created the perfect woman!" I told her with a laugh. "Both goddess and demon, the erotic possibilities are endless.

"Wait a second," I gasped, as I realized where she was leading, "You're not here to offer your body as proxy for World of Elegance are you!"

Epiphany for today, _"There is no way in hell that a woman this beautiful, this powerful, is going to offer a gift to you unless she had an ulterior motive. Not only that, if you take her up on her offer then you would be no better than Horace whose shriveled old soul was sacrificed to save your own!"_ I thought to myself angrily even as the expression on Urd's face confirmed my assertion. "If that is the case then you can take your dam wish and just hit the road right now!"

"No, no, no, NO! You don't understand!" Urd pleaded as she conjured a bicentennial quarter from thin air, "Look here," she told me holding the coin's face towards me; "Look at the face of this coin. This coin has a certain value does it not?"

"It does." I answered her.

"Now look," she continued as she reversed the coin in her hand, "Other than you seeing it from a different angle, has anything really changed about this coin, is its value diminished, will it not buy as much as before?"

"No, it hasn't," I told her as I tried to puzzle out her meaning.

"I am like this coin Kendal, all the time you spent with World of Elegance you only saw that one side of me. Now for the first time you are seeing my other side, but it is still the same coin and its value minted from the same emotion, or is the wrapper that important to you?

"I am her, she is me, and we are… us." Urd repeated as I pondered the hidden meaning in her words.

As I did so, World of Elegance manifested and gliding over to me took my hand in hers and held it to her cheek. When she did I felt the emptiness inside me fade. As my pain faded so did she, becoming translucent as she did and I closed my eyes to avoid having to witness her leave me once again. After a few seconds when the pain did not return, I opened them again and it was Urd who now held my hand to her cheek as tears ran from her eyes.

"Is it really true, are you really her?" I asked in astonishment as I finally felt the juxtaposition she was trying so hard to make me understand. "Is it possible that you can ease this pain?"

_"Ask him how he would feel about a heavenly __ménage à trois?"_ World of Elegance told Urd mentally as her face turned bright red in response to the question.

That last snipe was more than I could handle and I busted out laughing to the apparent confusion of Urd who had been unaware of the fact that I had been eavesdropping on her internal deliberations.

"Totally subservient my ass!" I said as soon as I regained my composure.

"_I thought we agreed that I would be the one to make our case to Mr. Kendal."_ Urd scolded her, as she realized that her Angel had been playing both sides of the fence.

"_Well the way you were beating around the bush it's a wonder he hasn't up and left us by now,"_ World of Elegance answered her, _"get to the point!"_

"_Okay, okay I will, just let me do it my way will you!"_ Urd asked her.

"_Very well, but if you don't get done soon I'll take matters into my own hands!"_ Elegance threatened.

"Problems in the discipline department?" I asked.

"You have no idea," Urd acknowledged, "she has been behaving like a spoiled bitch ever since you returned her."

"I guess I should apologize then?"

"You should, making love to an Angel, what the hell were you thinking! Now all she ever thinks about is sex, sex, sex!"

"Wait a second, didn't you just say that you were both one in the same?"

"Have it your way then," Urd answered, as her face turned an even brighter shade of red, "that's all WE think about!"

"Are you saying that you chased me all the way from Nashville to here with the promise of a wish just because the two of you have got ants in your pants?"

"Not really," Urd answered seriously, "this is the real deal but, I / we want more." Looking towards the cross, I could sense that she was pondering her words, that she was fixing to open herself to a pain she had long held in check. Seeing this vulnerable side of her, this most powerful being in all creation, opened and exposed like that suddenly made the pain I had felt so acutely just a few seconds ago seem small and insignificant by comparison.

"Tell me," she began, "did you ever ask yourself why somebody like me would want to get involved in the love potion business? Why somebody who is as beautiful as you say I am, would want to dabble in that sort of alchemy?"

"Not really, I just put it down as your hobby or something."

"For me it was no hobby, it was more like an act of desperation!" she started to cry, "You see all my life there has never been any love for me up there, nobody to see me and accept me for who I truly am. So I decided since I couldn't find love for myself then I would steal it! To take from others what they had that I wanted! That's why I began to use potions, to seduce others into the belief that they were in love with me, but no matter what I tried, no matter how subtle the seduction it just wasn't the same, the love I stole was empty, hollow. It hurt, always knowing that I had to steal what others freely gave. After a while I gave up, I built a shell around myself and used my talent to live vicariously through others. I had long since resigned myself to that being my fate, then you came along and upset everything!" Urd cried, tears once again flowing freely down her face.

"You loved my very soul, saw me / us as we truly are and found the truth of it when nobody else could. You have destroyed that shell, shattered it into a million pieces and this is all that is left," she indicated with her hands as World of Elegance showed her wings, "Exposed and at your mercy, we want what she had for those few days. I / we want you back by our side to love and hold, to ease the pain we hold within, to feel the same as only true lovers can feel. Can you please try to love me / us as you loved her, please?" She begged.

"I think I understand now," I said, as I began to realize Urd's level of desperation, "This properly worded wish you say I have coming. This wish that can ease our mutual pain, it has to be about a love that heals and it is important that I insure that it is as much about easing your pain as it is about easing mine."

"That's right," she answered me with an air of relief, "but it has to be correctly worded or it will cause the two of us great unhappiness. In addition, even though I am a part of the wish it cannot be about me. It must be what you and only you truly want."

"I understand what you're saying, that I have to wish for what we both want but the rules say you can't tell me what that is. No matter how you look at it, not knowing what to ask is just too dangerous, what if I phrase it wrong? Wouldn't it be a better idea if we were to just 'shack up' together and let this healing come naturally?"

"It's nice to know that you are at least thinking with your big head and not the little one," Urd chided me, "but aren't you forgetting who my parents are?"

"Oops." I said as my head worked its way through all the ramifications of what might happen to me should I find myself the target of their combined wrath.

Noting the look of realization on my face Urd continued to explain. "Father is a pretty liberal guy so I'm sure he will understand and probably grant you a painless death. Mother, on the other hand… well you get the idea I'm sure."

I did.

"Wishes are different in that they are enforceable contracts between the granter, me in this case, and the recipient, you. Once in place they are monitored by Yggdrasil and enforced by something we call the System Force, something you are going to need if you expect to survive longer than fifteen minutes."

"I think I understand, still there must be a way that the two of us can put our heads together and come up with a wish that will be to our mutual satisfaction. Isn't there anything you can do to help me?"

"Fourteen minutes, and sadly I must admit no, this is beyond my expertise," she said, shaking her head while reaching into her blouse and pulling out a large briefcase filled with legal looking documents. "However, I did have the forethought to stop by the legal department before coming down here and had a rather lengthy consultation with one of the few lawyers who've actually made it over to our side of the fence."

With that, she opened the briefcase and showed me a 2-inch thick pile of handwritten legal looking documents written in what appeared to be old English as it might have been back at the turn of the 19th century.

"I'm sorry for all the legal jargon but I'm assured by Daniel that this contract is airtight and mutually beneficial to us both."

"Daniel?"

"Daniel Webster," she said in a matter-of-fact voice, "the last really great lawyer to make it into heaven in recent memory. You're down to twelve minutes by the way."

"Daniel Webster died in 1852." I told her.

"Look kid, for me that's recent and don't even think about asking that next question!" She warned.

"Anyway," I continued, "how do you expect me to make heads or tails of this? I am going to need a translator to translate it into the proper gobbledygook just so another lawyer can translate it back into English!"

"Ten minutes left, here is the short version if you're that interested." Urd explained, "Basically it says that we will be mutually supportive of one another. In order to avoid problems with the System Force there is a clause in there that says I get to come and go as I please. Despite the fact that you hold my heart in your hands, I am not your property. You do not get to tell me what to do and I do not get to tell you what to do, except when I feel like it. I do not cook, I do not keep house nor do the laundry.

"When we are together you will treat me like the goddess I am, I expect to dine out only at the finer restaurants, and if you want to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me I expect you to use only the finest sake. The words "Honey I got a headache" will not be uttered by you unless you really do have a headache and even then be prepared to suffer the consequences for I am a master alchemist and have no qualms whatsoever about shoving whatever chemical concoction the situation requires down your throat if need be.

"For my part, in order for you to keep up with World of Elegance's and my mutual demands I will supply you with an unlimited amount of Ironman potion which I expect you to use as the situation requires. These potions will be packaged in single use vials and are not for re-sale. I expect you to be ready for…"

"Hold it, hold it," I interrupted her, "are you sure that's what this contract says?"

"Why," she answered me in mock shock, "don't you trust the word of a second class goddess?"

"_Bullshit!"_ World of Elegance coughed in our minds.

"Eight minutes left." Urd continued unfazed.

"By the way what's with the countdown?" I asked her.

"Due to the odd nature of my job, the fact that I'm a Norn means my actions are constantly monitored by Yggdrasil. When you used the term 'shack up' a while ago you were propositioning me in a roundabout fashion. The fact that I did not zap you immediately afterwards means that I have been drugged or am seriously considering the idea. That in turn triggered an automated response by my father's personal bodyguard, Lind. I felt her gravity wave when she descended to earth seven minutes ago. Fortunately for you, she thought I was still in Japan so she came through the gate in Nekomi, however, I am sure she is now in hypersonic flight to this place in order to execute my father's orders wherein are contained such phrases as 'With all due haste' and 'extreme prejudice.'"

"Are you sure?" I asked her looking at my watch nervously.

"I'm guessing at the time a little," Urd admitted. "I've assumed that Lind put herself in a fractional orbit in order to get here, but if she decided to take a shortcut straight through the center of the earth then she should be here any second."

"Whatever," I told her as I realized that what the contract said really did not matter. It was our happiness that was the issue and if she had taken the time and introspection necessary to define what that really meant to her, then I wanted a piece of it too! "If it means that we get to be with the other then I will gladly agree to your terms."

"They are not my terms they are your terms," she corrected me, "and hurry up and sign the contract before my father realizes that I've fiddled the system."

I hurriedly did as she instructed and watched in awe as the contract turned a bright blue before disappearing into her heart. Seconds later her eyes got this far away look in them and she levitated about two feet into the air taking me and everything in a ten-foot radius with her. Suddenly a bright blue light like a laser shot from the middle of her forehead straight up into the air, parting the clouds as it did so, the light itself lingering for only a few seconds before stopping as suddenly as it began, dropping me gently back to earth just as it vanished. For her part, Urd just stood there and looked at me smiling for a few seconds before her eyes rolled back in her head as she fainted. Catching her, I picked her up in my arms and crushed her to my chest before I carried her over to the base of the giant cross where I sat down and had a good long talk with my God, asking that he watch over the both of us. I didn't really know why I thought that last part was necessary but something in the back of my mind was telling me that our new relationship was going to need all the help it could get.

After a few minutes of me gently stroking her hair a small crowd had gathered and was staring at us curiously when her eyes fluttered open and she let out a whoop. "What a rush," she screamed, "that is some seriously powerful mojo! No wonder Belldandy hangs on to Keiichi like she does."

"All better now?" I asked her to the confusion of the crowd.

"Much," she answered, "However that was the first wish like that I've ever granted and it just put the kibosh on my power reserves. So I was wondering," she continued shyly, "do you think you could spot me the cash for another Texas King Challenge?"

Thus began our rather odd relationship that continues to this day, fortunately for us, Urd explained to me, Goddesses only sleep when they want too, (Her sister Belldandy being a noted exception to this rule.). Thusly she is perfectly capable of fulfilling her duties in Japan during the daytime there then hopping half way around the world to catch the sunrise with me. Sometimes she comes by to just visit for a few hours before being called away to perform some mysterious duty that the universe requires of her. Other times I have felt her as she joins me in bed only to be gone again when I woke. Sometimes Urd stays in Japan and sends World of Elegance to stop in for a quickie in the middle of the night. (Night our time, afternoon in Japan.) Sometimes she disappears for weeks at a time only for me to come home and find her sprawled on the couch wearing my sweats stuffing her face with potato chips. I do not know how long this will last but I know that I will always be here, waiting for her to come home.

Epilogue and a funny story.

For supposedly being two halves of the same whole there sure are many differences between Urd and her Angel. For instance, even though Urd is aggressive and outgoing in public, in bed she is very reserved, being more of a touchy feely type. For her making love is a physical expression of an emotion too complex to put into words.

World of Elegance is more of a 'lets-skip-the-dinner-and-a-movie' and get down to business type. For her making love is a physical contest, one where she wins only when she loses. To her sex is all about the passion, the greater the intensity the better the lovemaking. That got me to thinking one night so I asked her, "Why the fixation on sex?"

In response, she answered my question with one of her own. "Do you know how often an Angel has sex in their lifetime?"

"I never thought about it, so how often does an Angel have sex?"

"Once, if they're lucky," World of Elegance told me seriously.

"Why is that, don't you have enough boy angels to go around?"

"There are plenty of boy angels. The problem is that for some silly reason they don't believe in the physical act of making love unless it is to collect DNA so they can put an Angel's egg in the tree. They prefer to think of physical love as something that is beneath them, preferring instead to enjoy it viscerally through the actions of their hosts.

"I don't know too much about the mores in heaven but that seems to me to be a serious waste."

"I agree," she laughed, "but it sure did wonders for my ego."

"Ego?" I asked her.

"For awhile there I was the most envied Angel in all Heaven, all because I was the only one getting it on a routine basis."

"I'm surprised they didn't pull your hair out."

"They wanted to at first but after Holy Bell and Gorgeous Rose explained to them that the fault lay with their male counterparts they re-focused their anger down more constructive avenues."

"So what happened as a result?"

"It's kind of like a sixties flashback on steroids, many of the Gods and Goddesses whose Angels they thought they had under control are now demanding that their mates either put out or get out and once again God's name is being mentioned aloud. Although in all fairness it is usually in reference to 'oh god… oh god…OH GODDDD!"

"Well that's a start." I said.


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's note: I did not like the way I ended the last chapter so I chopped off the end of the previous one, added it to the beginning of this one and expanded the story._

Ah! Lost Angel ch10:

A tragic comedy.

Before his death, my father tried to explain the differences between Shakespeare's tragedies and his comedies. The best I was able to glean from all his explanations was; if the hero dies, it's a tragedy, if he lives then it's a comedy. Since I am still here, I guess this next story is a comedy but you will not catch me laughing.

It had been about six months since the incident at the cross, the snow on the mountains was long since melted, spring had sprung and summer was in full scorch. I was enjoying a lazy morning sprawled out on the bed in the caretaker's shack that I had come to call home. As I was contemplating what project I needed to get done today, I was startled out of my reverie by the doorbell. I was just rolling out of the sack when I heard Urd's soft voice call out to me from downstairs, "I'll get it." This surprised me a little, as I thought that she was still in Japan. Eased from the necessity of getting dressed in a hurry I actually took the time to examine my choice of attire, selecting some Bermuda shorts and a mesh over shirt along with some leather sandals for my feet.

As I was still dressing Urd's voice came traveling back up the stairs with a curious question. "Honey, did you call out for a hooker?"

"Uh, no, why do you ask?"

"Well there is some woman here dressed up like a tramp insisting on talking to you."

"Describe her for me." I asked curiously.

"Big hair, big boobs and big butt."

"Sounds like my ex-wife." I told her.

"That's who she says she is."

"_Crap,"_ I thought to myself as I realized that whatever she wanted it wasn't good. Looking out the window of my second story bedroom that overlooked the entrance, I could see that Kimberly, my ex, was in a faceoff with Urd having fixed her medusa like stare upon Urd that for reasons Kim could not fathom was not having any effect on the Daimakaicho's firstborn.

"Honey," Kimberly said as she tried to provoke a response from Urd, "It's about the company. Can I come in so we can talk?"

"I'm sorry dear," I answered her in kind, "But I have this thing about letting bad karma into my household. If it's that important go around back to the boat dock and I'll join you in a minute."

Hurrying downstairs, I caught Urd's eye as she walked by and asked her, "Trouble?"

"For you no, but for her… well her fate will be what she makes it."

Smiling at me, she waved her hands and transformed her flattering white mid length blouse and jeans into an even more flattering white one-piece bathing suit. Picking up a tray of three glasses of green tea that had not been there earlier she motioned for me to open the door for her as she carried them to the table where my ex-wife was patiently waiting. Placing the tray on the table, I observed as the tea stalks in the glass selected by my wife, which until then had been standing upright, suddenly change their orientation, now floating on the surface.

"Does she have to be here?" Kim asked me frostily.

"Yes she does," I answered, "if only because I want her to be."

"Relax," Urd told her, "today I'm here as your bodyguard."

"And why, pray tell, do you think I need a bodyguard?" Kim asked her.

"You should know the answer to that better than I," Urd told her gravely, "but if you insist on playing dumb you can suffice it to say while that sometimes, bad things happen to good people for no reason, it's more often the case that bad things happen to bad people because they deserve it. I'm just here to keep the latter from happening, if I can."

"And what is it that you fear is going to happen to me?" Kim asked her snootily.

"That all depends on the karma of the person and over that I have no control," Urd answered her sadly.

Hoping to prevent their conversation from degrading into the macabre I interjected myself between the two and asked Kim her reason for stopping by.

"It's your company," she began, "the problem is this…"

I will not put her conversation down word for word in this journal simply because there is no need. In essence, she told me that due to her and her lawyer boyfriend's mismanagement of my company and its manufacturing processes they were seeing an inordinate amount of product returns and warranty claims. So many in fact that the company's financial health was in jeopardy. As a result and with the reluctant agreement of her boyfriend/partner, (AKA my ex-lawyer.), she was here offering to hire me back as a consultant in order to help them get the plant back on its feet.

To say that I was sorely tempted would be an understatement and there are some aspects of my old life that I still miss, being head of my own business one of them. Nevertheless, my old life was over and I was now living a new one, one where Urd and World of elegance were the new center of my existence. So, not even bothering to consider her offer seriously I turned her down flat. This in turn caused my ex to up the ante now offering to make me a junior partner. When I turned her down again she upped the ante even more offering to make me a senior partner with "special incentives." Turning her down again she began to beg, then plead and when that did not work, demand that I come back because I "owed it" to her.

It was at this juncture that Urd had had enough; rising slowly from her chair Urd fixed her green eyes on Kim's and said. "Miss Kimberly, you have your answer and further discussion of this subject is unnecessary. It is time now for you to take your leave."

For a second I thought Kim was going to make trouble but the look on Urd's face was enough to dissuade her. Urd politely escorted her around to the front of the house and we both watched her from the front door as Kim got into her car and drove off. As I shut the door behind me, I heard her car as it screeched to a halt then furiously backup into the courtyard. Shortly thereafter Kimberly began pounding on my door angrily shouting obscenities incoherently while she did so. Tired of being polite I threw open the door and screamed furiously, "Dammit no means no!" I was fixing to let loose with a full-blown tirade when I noticed that she was pointing a small pistol at me. Frozen in terror I saw her finger squeeze the trigger and… nothing happened. In frustration, Kimberly pulled the trigger again, this time something did happen but not what she expected. Instead of a bullet between my eyes, the gun just exploded, turning her manicured hands into hamburger while leaving me unscathed.

An instant later, almost as if she knew this was going to happen, Urd joined me in the entranceway with a small first aid kit in her hands. Looking at me with a sad expression she sighed and began to gently bandage the hands of my would be murderer.

"I guess I should thank you," I told Urd shakily as I watched her wrap my ex-wife's wounds.

"No need, that wasn't me." She said seriously, "That was the System Force!"

"The System Force, how?"

"When I had Daniel spec it out for me I only adjusted the parameters so that the System Force wouldn't cause us any trouble, all the other protections I left in place. If I had to guess, what probably happened just now was that Yggdrasil forced a one-in-a-million misfire to happen, causing the first bullet to lodge in the barrel. When she tried to cap you the second time that round had nowhere to go so the weapon just exploded, I'll know more after I review the data runs."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"No doubt, her hands are going to be seriously scarred and she most likely will lose her trigger finger but sadly for her she will live."

It wasn't what she said but how she said it that puzzled me about Urd's last statement, for although her words could be considered vindictive the sadness in her voice was unmistakable. Urd really felt sorry, not for me but for Kimberly whom she really believed would be better off dead. It didn't take long for me to figure out why.

"I guess maybe we should call an ambulance or the police or somebody?" I suggested.

"Don't bother," Urd told me grimly, "Mother will be along shortly."

"Your mother?"

"Yes, I caught a hint of Hild's brimstone perfume on her just now. Your ex probably had a contract with her and she has just failed to deliver. And as we both know my mother doesn't take kindly to failure."

It was about this time that my delayed adrenalin rush kicked in and my world became surreal as I tried to make sense of all the emotions I was feeling at that moment. Just reflecting on the shear absurdity of the situation is enough to give me a headache even today; here was the woman I loved calmly bandaging the hand of a woman I once loved who had just tried to kill me, the latter having been aided by the mother of the former.

Noticing the sad look on my face Urd admonished me, "I wouldn't feel too sorry for her if I were you. None of what she told you was true. Her lawyer boyfriend saw the writing on the wall months ago and took a hike. There is already a motion in the works to force KCSE into bankruptcy. Her plan was to put on the damsel-in-distress act in order to seduce you into buying the company from her for what on the face of it would appear to be pennies on the dollar. However, she is the beneficiary for the insurance and the building where your company is located is riddled with deadly hazards, some due to neglect others placed there deliberately. She was going to seduce you, make love to you right there on the factory floor, then let you fall victim to one of those hazards, even planning on going so far as to push you into one should you not find it quickly enough on your own."

Looking over to where Kimberly lay I could tell simply from her expression that what Urd said was true.

"How do you know all this?" I asked in dismay.

"I'm the Yggdrasil system administrator, so I know everything," Urd explained flatly. "About a month ago, she popped up on the System Force radar as a potential threat when she began searching for you. Seeing as how you are my boyfriend and I love you and all that I decided to inquire as to her motivations."

Stunned I asked her, "You're telling me that for the last month she has been seeking me out just so she could kill me and you knew about it!"

"That's right," Urd assented, "and the System Force has been protecting you by keeping her from discovering your whereabouts."

"But why didn't you tell me!"

"Because there was no need too! Desperation was her motivation. All that needed to happen was to keep the two of you apart until your company went in to litigation! After that it wouldn't have mattered to her anymore."

"Nonetheless she did find me," I shouted at her angrily, "she just came after me with a gun for crying out loud!"

"That's only because mother told her where to find you!" she cried, "Dearest, I can protect you from many things but not Hild, not my mother. If she wants you dead then you're… dead and there isn't anything I can do about it."

I could see by the expression on my beloved's face that she had just made a very painful admission. _"How hard it must be for her,"_ I thought to myself_, "to be gifted with all this mighty power and know it still might not be enough to protect the ones you love." _

Walking up to her, I put my hands around her slender waste. "Don't cry," I whispered in her ear, "there isn't a single mother in the universe who isn't convinced that the man their daughter is with isn't good enough for them. In Hild's case, I think she might have a point, but I do know I love you, enough even to risk the occasional assassin's bullet if you will just stay by my side."

"Sometimes you say the most romantic things." Urd whispered as she melted in my arms.

A few minutes later Hild did indeed stop by for a tête-à-tête with her daughter. Gently removing my arms from around her waist Urd kissed my hands before joining her mother out on the boat dock leaving me alone with my ex wife as she cowered silently in the corner nursing her injured hand.

Once safely out of ear shot Urd cut to the chase, "Mother," she asked in a very peeved voice, "why did you put out a hit on my boyfriend?"

"Urd'ie sometimes I think that you forget I'm the CEO of Hel." Hild began as if she were explaining the obvious, "Surely, you must realize that a woman in my position must always be on guard against usurpers and all the other political upheaval that comes with the job. This, of course, causes me to worry about many things and to constantly… reevaluate my political liabilities. Now one potential liability that I never used to worry about was my little girl. At least that was the case until Horace took you out with that cheap shot. Now, in all honesty, after that little learning experience, I am sure that you will not make that mistake again. However, what about Kendal? He still doesn't have a clue what he has got himself into."

"Mother, I told you about the contract I have. Yggdrasil and the System Force should keep him safe."

"The operative term there is should, and for me that just isn't good enough, I needed to know you had all your bases covered."

"Now you know," Urd told her softly.

"Now I know," Hild repeated, as she froze her daughter where she sat. "But there is still one test that Kendal must pass without any help from you."

Standing regally Hild walked over to where my ex-wife was laying in the foyer, grabbed her by the hair and gave me a meaningful look almost daring me to say something. As she waited, my ex let out a mournful wale.

"Honey pleeaassee don't let her take meee! I swear I'll do anything you ask… anything at all… I'll be your good little girl… I'll be your slave… I'll leave and never come back! Just stop her, please just stop her… save me… save me… please save me… pleeaassee!"

I never in my life wanted to help someone so much as I did her, this poor deluded woman who had just tried to kill me, but something inside was telling me that if I so much as looked her direction all bets would be off. So, I just stood there motionless and held Hild's gaze with my own while my former wife begged for her life, her cries for mercy ripping at my heart like knifes.

The why of it all.

Now being the ruler of the demon realm Hild is of course a master manipulator. To Hild, her subjects, the mortals, and every other living being are nothing more than pawns in an impossibly large and complex game of chess. Don't get me wrong now, I'm not saying that she doesn't care about them; in fact quite the opposite is true. However, she has no empathy; no feeling for what an individual might be suffering because of her actions as she strives for the greater good of her realm. That leaves all who know her with the impression that she is cold and ruthless caring only for that and nothing else.

However, a few also know that the sole exception to this rule is her daughter Urd. Hild loves her daughter, and she wants her to be happy, of that, I have no doubt. This being Hild's only weakness makes her daughter a target and Hild is painfully aware of this fact. Now as long as she stayed up in Heaven or down in Hel Urd was safe, but the silly goddess had managed to get herself banished to earth where she was vulnerable and apparently has every intention of remaining. Now Hild could have dispatched an army of demons to drag Urd down to the safety of Hel, but rather than seal her daughter away from harm Hild did exactly the opposite, appearing to have cast her out alone and defenseless into the cold harsh reality of the mortal world leaving her to her own devices. Hild even sent a powerful first class demon named Mara to harass Urd, leaving few to dare question just how ruthless the Daimakaicho could be.

However, appearances can be deceiving and the facts of this matter are indeed quite different. Although she is rated as a first class demon Mara is an idiot, so rather than harassing Urd, who is only a class two goddess, Mara only manages to amuse her. The end result was exactly what Hild intended and using Mara's unbroken string of failures as an excuse Hild sent an avatar of herself, (The little 12-year-old version of Hild that I met at the Skull and Rainbow.), to personally oversee her activities. This in turn, allows Hild to watch over her daughter while appearing to do exactly the opposite.

When my ex-wife first started plotting to kill me the event was red flagged by Yggdrasil and by means of their information exchange system Hild was notified too. By itself, Kim's intentions to do away with me were of little worry, the System Force protective measures being adequate to keep me safe. That all changed suddenly when in desperation, Kim called upon the dark forces to aid her in her mission, thereby setting in motion a series of events that eventually led to my ex-wife's demise.

Now because of the fact that I was Yggdrasil protected, the local demon contractor was prohibited from closing the deal and up channeled Kim's request to upper management for determination. Upper level was reluctant to sign off on it due to my association with Hild's daughter and kicked the request all the way to the top where it finally landed on the desk of the Daimakaicho.

Taking ownership of the request Hild sought out my ex and did something unheard of: She tried to talk Kim out of it! Hild even went so far as to explain in excruciating detail the nature of the forces aligned against her and the consequences of failure. Nevertheless, my ex-wife could not, or would not, believe that my love for Urd would make me immune to her machinations, persisting until Hild reluctantly entered into a simple Life-for-a-Life contract with her.

In doing so, Kim unknowingly had placed Hild in a serious bind. Even though Hild does not give a tinkers dam about me, she does care about her daughter's happiness and Kim had just forced her to close a deal that, if fulfilled was guaranteed to strain her relationship with Urd past the breaking point.

"That's the big problem with using a performance based business model," Urd explained to me later, "It doesn't leave you any wiggle room."

If I had been given enough time to puzzle things out, I might have been able to save my ex. The demon realm being a profit driven business after all. However, had I entered into a contract with Hild to spare Kim's life it would have meant that Kim would remain on the surface world and her Life-for-a Life contract with Hild would remain in force, a constant threat to my life, Urd's happiness and Hild's budding relationship with her daughter. (Not to mention her profit and loss columns, Hild still smarting from the hit she took when she traded Horace's soul to save mine.) However, Hild had absolutely no intention of leaving herself exposed one second longer than necessary and because of Kim's abysmal performance, (Not to mention in order to insure her daughter's happiness,), she was Johnny-on-the-spot ready to collect Kim's soul as soon as she defaulted, intending to close out the contract ASAP before Kim could try again.

That was the nature of the warning look that Hild was giving me even as my ex begged for mercy. So in the end the only thing I could do was what I did do, NOTHING! Hild having left me no other option but stand there as she took my measure using my ex-wife's screams for a yardstick. When, at last she was finally satisfied I was a worthy enough companion for her daughter Hild broke her gaze from mine and dragged my ex-wife screaming down into Hel.

As soon as her presence faded, the spell that held Urd vanished and she ran fearfully back inside the house. Seeing me still standing she took me in her arms and began softly crying. Whether it was from fear or impotence or just frustration her tears stinging my cheeks was the straw that broke the camel's back, it all just became more than I could handle and I broke down and began to cry as well.

"I know how much it hurts, I know." Urd whispered soothingly, "sometimes the hardest thing you can do, is do nothing at all."

Softly as if from far away, I heard World of Elegance's voice in my mind as she wrapped me in the safety of her powerful wings. _"As it was then so it is now, the promise made still holds true; I shall let no harm befall you." _

_Author's revised last word. That should do it for this story for now, as I have mentioned before this story exists in a different form over at fiction press. It was in the manga section titled Snow Angel, but since the completion of this story, I have pulled it back, renamed it, revised all the chapters and moved it over to the romance section. The new title is The Angel in the Snow.__ (Google search term **Ironrod/angel in the**** snow**.) Due to the very heavy traffic over at that site, you will not be able to find, The Angel in the Snow anywhere nears the top of the list.(Thus the reason for search term.), So far, the only way I have been able to locate it on the fiction press site is to do a search by author. As you begin to read it, you might think that you are reading the same text as was written here. However, there are significant divergences that become more pronounced the deeper you get into it. Keep in mind that Snow Angel was published first then later edited by me to fit the constraints of the Ah! My Goddess universe. As of this writing The Angel in the Snow is still a work in progress and any feedback would be greatly appreciated._


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